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SEYMOUR  EATON.  LiBrarim 


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FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 


:V><f^° 


I^abcrforti  Hibrarg  ILtttuxts 


FROM  EPICURUS  TO 
CHRIST 

A  STUDY   IN  THE  PRINCIPLES 
OF   PERSONALITY 


BV  , 

WILLIAM    DE   WITT|HYDE 

PRESIDENT  OF  BOWDOIN  COLLEGE 


"  Be  a  person,  and  respect  others  as  persons. 

—  HEGEL 


Nefc  gorfe 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1904 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1904, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1904. 


Norwood  Press 

y.  S.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berioick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood^  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


?^abcrfflrl3  ILibratg  Hectuns 


From  the  provisions  of  the  donor : 

"  The  money  [$io,ooo]  to  be  kept  safely  invested,  the 
Income  only  to  be  used  for  an  annual  course  or  series 
of  lectures  before  the  senior  class  of  the  College  and 
other  students,  on  the  Bible,  its  history  and  its  litera- 
ture, and,  as  way  may  open  for  it,  upon  its  doctrine  and 
its  teaching." 


PREFACE  ) 


When  asked  why  some  men  with  moderate 
talents  and  meagre  technical  equipment  succeed, 
where  others  with  greater  ability  and  better  prepa- 
ration fail;  why  some  women  with  plain  features 
and  few  accomplishments  charm,  while  others  with 
all  the  advantages  of  beauty  and  cultivation  repel, 
we  are  wont  to  conceal  our  ignorance  behind  the 
vague  term  personality.  Undoubtedly  the  deeper 
springs  of  personality  are  below  the  threshold  of 
consciousness,  in  hereditary  traits  and  early  train- 
ing. Still  some  of  the  higher  elements  of  per- 
sonality rise  above  this  threshold,  are  reducible  to 
philosophical  principles,  and  amenable  to  rational 
control. 

The  five  centuries  from  the  birth  of  Socrates  to 
the  death  of  Jesus  produced  five  such  principles : 
the  Epicurean  pursuit  of  pleasure,  genial  but  un- 
generous; the  Stoic  law  of  self-control,  strenuous 
but  forbidding;  the  Platonic  plan  of  subordina- 
tion, sublime  but  ascetic;  the  Aristotelian  sense 
of  proportion,  practical  but  uninspiring;  and  the 


VI  PREFACE 

Christian  Spirit  of  love,  broadest  and  deepest  of 
them  all. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  let  the  masters 
of  these  sane  and  wholesome  principles  of  per- 
sonality talk  to  us  in  their  own  words ;  with  just 
enough  of  comment  and  interpretation  to  bring 
us  to  their  points  of  view,  and  make  us  welcome 
their  friendly  assistance  in  the  philosophical  guid- 
ance of  life. 


WILLIAM  DE  WITT  HYDE. 


BowDoiN  College, 
Brunswick,  Maine. 
Jtily  20, 1904. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Epicurean  Pursuit  of  Pleasure 

I.  Selections  from  the  Epicurean  Scriptures 

II,  The  Epicurean  View  of  Work  and  Play 

III.  The  Epicurean  Price  of  Happiness    . 

IV.  The  Defects  of  Epicureanism    . 
V.  An  Example  of  Epicurean  Character 

VI.    The  Confessions  of  an  Epicurean  Heretic 

CHAPTER  II 

Stoic  Self-control  by  Law  . 

I.  The  Psychological  Law  of  Apperception    . 

II.  Selections  from  the  Stoic  Scriptures  . 

III.  The  Stoic  Reverence  for  Universal  Law 

IV.  The  Stoic  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  Evil 
V.  The  Stoic  Paradoxes          .... 

VI.    The  Religious  Aspect  of  Stoicism 
VII.    The  Permanent  Value  of  Stoicism     . 
VIII.    The  Defects  of  Stoicism    .... 


PAGB 
I 
20 
29 
36 
46 

53 


66 

71 

82 

87 
90 

95 

lOI 

106 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Platonic  Subordination  of  Lower 
TO  Higher 

L    The  Nature  of  Virtue no 

II.    Righteousness  writ  Large ii6 

vii 


Vm  CONTENTS 

III.  The  Cardinal  Virtues  .... 

IV.  Plato's  Scheme  of  Education 

V.  Righteousness  the  Comprehensive  Virtue  . 

VI.  The  Stages  of  Degeneration 

VII.  The  Intrinsic  Superiority  of  Righteousness 

VIII.  Truth  and  Error  in  Platonism   . 

CHAPTER   IV 

The  Aristotelian  Sense  of  Proportion 

I.  Aristotle's  Objections  to  Previous  Systems 

II.  The  Social  Nature  of  Man 

III.  Right  and  Wrong  determined  by  the  End 

IV.  The  Need  of  Instruments  .... 
V.  The  Happy  Mean 

VI.  The  Aristotelian  Virtues  and  their  Acquisition 

VII.  Aristotelian  Friendship      .... 


PAGE 

123 

131 
138 
143 
153 
159 


169 
176 
179 
191 
194 
199 
209 
VIII.    Criticism  and  Summary  of  Aristotle's  Teaching    212 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Christian  Spirit  of  Love 

I.    The  Definition  of  the  Christian  Spirit        .        .  215 
II.     The  Christian  Expansion  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments      218 

III.  Practical  Applications  of  the  Christian  Spirit     .  234 

IV.  The  Personal  Fruits  of  the  Spirit       .        .         .  247 
V.     Christian  Therapeutics 256 

VI.     Catholic  Christianity 266 

INDEX 281 


FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 


FROM    EPICURUS   TO  CHRIST 
CHAPTER  I 

THE  EPICUREAN  PURSUIT  OF  PLEASURE 

I 

SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  EPICUREAN   SCRIPTURES 

Epicureanism  is  so  simple  and  transparent  a 
principle  that  it  scarcely  needs  an  interpreter. 
The  more  subtle  teaching  of  the  other  prophets 
will  require  to  be  introduced  by  explanatory  state- 
ment, or  else  accompanied  by  a  running  commen- 
tary as  it  proceeds.  The  best  way  to  understand 
Epicureanism,  however,  is  to  let  Epicurus  and  his 
disciples  speak  for  themselves.  Accordingly,  as 
in  religious  services  the  sermon  is  preceded  by 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  singing  of  hymns, 
we  will  open  our  study  of  the  Epicurean  principle 
by  selections  from  the  scriptures  and  hymns  of 
the  sect.  First  the  master,  though  unfortunately 
he  is  not  so  good  a  master  of  style  as  many  of  his 
disciples,  shall  speak.  The  gist  of  Epicurus's 
teaching  is  contained  in  the  following  passages. 


2  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

"The  end  of  all  our  actions  is  to  be  free  from 
aaCuA*^  pain  and  fear;  and  when  once  we  have  attained 
this,  all  the  tempest  of  the  soul  is  laid,  seeing  that 
the  living  creature  has  not  to  go  to  find  something 
that  is  wanting,  or  to  seek  something  else  by 
which  the  good  of  the  soul  and  of  the  body  will  be 
fulfilled."  "  Wherefore  we  call  pleasure  the  alpha 
and  omega  of  a  blessed  life.  Pleasure  is  our  first 
and  kindred  good.  From  it  is  the  commencement 
of  every  choice  and  every  aversion,  and  to  it  we 
come  back,  and  make  feeling  the  rule  by  which  to 
judge  of  every  good  thing."  "  When  we  say,  then, 
that  pleasure  is  the  end  and  aim,  we  do  not  mean 
the  pleasures  of  the  prodigal,  or  the  pleasures  of 
sensuality,  as  we  are  understood  by  some  who  are 
either  ignorant  and  prejudiced  for  other  views,  or 
inclined  to  misinterpret  our  statements.  By  pleas- 
ure we  mean  the  absence  of  pain  in  the  body  and 
trouble  in  the  soul.  It  is  not  an  unbroken  suc- 
cession of  drinking  feasts  and  of  revelry,  not  the 
enjoyments  of  the  fish  and  other  delicacies  of  a 
splendid  table,  which  produce  a  pleasant  life :  it  is 
sober  reasoning,  searching  out  the  reasons  for 
every  choice  and  avoidance,  and  banishing  those 
beUefs  through  which  great  tumults  take  posses- 
sion of  the  soul." 

Yet  while  pleasure  is  thus  of  the  mind,  it  by  no 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE  3 

means  excludes  the  pleasures  of  the  body.  He 
says,  "  I  am  unable  to  form  any  conception  of 
good  from  which  we  have  eliminated  the  pleasures 
of  eating  and  drinking,  the  pleasures  of  music  and 
eloquence,  and  the  pleasures  of  shape  and  pleasant 
movements." 

Thus,  pleasure,  in  Epicurus's  use  of  the  term,  is 
neither  mere  abstract  intelligence,  in  contrast  with 
which  bodily  joys  are  low  and  degrading;  nor  is 
it  mere  sensuous  satisfaction,  from  which  reason 
is  excluded.  It  is  sense  controlled  by  reason  for 
the  fuller  satisfaction  of  sensuous  ends.  This 
control  of  reason  will  manifest  itself  chiefly  in  the 
limitation  of  desires  to  what  is  simple,  natural,  and 
easily  attainable,  and  the  limitation  of  effort  to 
the  comparatively  few  things  that  are  really  worth 
while.  Says  Epicurus  :  "  Thou  must  also  keep  in 
mind  that  of  desires  some  are  natural,  and  some 
are  groundless;  and  that  of  the  natural  some  are 
necessary  as  well  as  natural,  and  some  are  natural 
only.  And  of  the  necessary  desires,  some  are 
necessary  if  we  are  to  be  happy,  and  some  if  the 
body  is  to  remain  unperturbed,  and  some  if  we 
are  even  to  live.  By  the  clear  and  certain  under- 
standing of  these  things  we  learn  to  make  every 
preference  and  aversion,  so  that  the  body  may 
have  health  and  the  soul  tranquillity,  seeing  that 


4  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

this  is  the  sum  and  end  of  a  blessed  life."  "  Cheer- 
ful poverty  is  an  honourable  thing."  "  Great  wealth 
is  but  poverty  when  matched  with  the  law  of 
nature."  "  If  any  one  thinks  his  own  not  to  be 
most  ample,  he  may  become  lord  of  the  whole 
world,  and  will  yet  be  wretched."  "  He  enjoys 
wealth  most  who  needs  it  least."  "  If  thou  wilt 
make  a  man  happy,  add  not  unto  his  riches,  but 
take  away  from  his  desires." 

"  And  since  pleasure  is  our  first  and  native  good, 
for  that  reason  we  do  not  choose  every  pleasure 
whatsoever,  but  oftentimes  pass  over  many  pleas- 
ures when  a  greater  annoyance  ensues  from  them. 
And  oftentimes  we  consider  pains  superior  to 
pleasures,  and  submit  to  the  pain  for  a  long  time, 
when  it  is  attended  for  us  with  a  greater  pleasure. 
All  pleasure,  therefore,  because  of  its  kinship  with 
our  nature,  is  a  good,  but  it  is  not  in  all  cases  our 
choice,  even  as  every  pain  is  an  evil,  though  pain 
is  not  always,  and  in  every  case,  to  be  shunned." 

"  It  is,  however,  by  measuring  one  against  an- 
other, and  by  looking  at  the  conveniences  and 
inconveniences,  that  all  these  things  must  be 
judged.  Sometimes  we  treat  the  good  as  an  evil, 
and  the  evil,  on  the  contrary,  as  a  good ;  and  we 
regard  independence  of  outward  goods  as  a  great 
good,  not  so  as  in  all  cases  to  use  little,  but  so  as 


THE   EPICUREAN  PURSUIT  OF  PLEASURE  5 

to  be  contented  with  little,  if  we  have  not  much, 
being  thoroughly  persuaded  that  they  have  the 
sweetest  enjoyment  of  luxury  who  stand  least  in 
need  of  it,  and  that  whatever  is  natural  is  easily 
procured,  and  only  the  vain  and  worthless  hard  to 
win.  Plain  fare  gives  as  much  pleasure  as  a  costly 
diet,  when  once  the  pain  due  to  want  is  removed ; 
and  bread  and  water  confer  the  highest  pleasure 
when  they  are  brought  to  hungry  lips.  To  habitu- 
ate self,  therefore,  to  plain  and  inexpensive  diet 
gives  all  that  is  needed  for  health,  and  enables  a 
man  to  meet  the  necessary  requirements  of  life 
without  shrinking,  and  it  places  us  in  a  better 
frame  when  we  approach  at  intervals  a  costly  fare, 
and  renders  us  fearless  of  fortune." 

"  Riches  according  to  nature  are  of  limited 
extent,  and  can  be  easily  procured ;  but  the  wealth 
craved  after  by  vain  fancies  knows  neither  end  nor 
limit.  He  who  has  understood  the  limits  of  life 
knows  how  easy  it  is  to  get  all  that  takes  away  the 
pain  of  want,  and  all  that  is  required  to  make  our 
life  perfect  at  every  point.  In  this  way  he  has  no 
need  of  anything  which  involves  a  contest."  "  The 
beginning  and  the  greatest  good  is  prudence. 
Wherefore  prudence  is  a  more  precious  thing 
even  than  philosophy :  from  it  grow  all  the  other 
virtues,  for  it  teaches  that  we  cannot  lead  a  life  of 


6  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

pleasure  which  is  not  also  a  life  of  prudence,  honour, 
/  and  justice ;  nor  lead  a  life  of  prudence,  honour, 
{   and  justice,  which  is  not  also  a  life  of  pleasure, 
/    For  the  virtues  have  grown  into  one  with  a  pleas- 
ant life,  and  a  pleasant  life  is  inseparable  from 
them." 

"  Of  all  the  things  which  wisdom  procures  for 
the  happiness  of  Ufe  as  a  whole,  by  far  the  great- 
est is  the  acquisition  of  friendship." 
.  "  We  ought  to  look  round  for  people  to  eat  and 
/  drink  with,  before  we  look  for  something  to  eat 
}  and  drink :  to  feed  without  a  friend  is  the  life  of  a 
lion  and  a  wolf."  Especially  should  one  live  in 
the  imaginary  presence  of  some  one  wiser  and 
better  than  himself.  "  Do  everything  as  if  Epicu- 
rus had  his  eye  upon  you.  Retire  into  yourself 
chiefly  at  that  time  when  you  are  compelled  to  be 
in  a  crowd."  "We  ought  to  select  some  good 
man  and  keep  him  ever  before  our  eyes,  so  that  we 
may,  as  it  were,  live  under  his  eye,  and  do  every- 
thing in  his  sight."  "It  is  troublesome  to  be 
always  commencing  life."  "  Among  the  other  ills 
which .  attend  folly  is  this  :  it  is  always  beginning 
to  live."  "  A  foolish  life  is  restless  and  disagree- 
able :  it  is  wholly  engrossed  with  the  future." 
"  We  are  born  once :  twice  we  cannot  be  born, 
and  for  everlasting  we  must  be  non-existent.     But 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE  7 

thou,  who  art  not  master  of  the  morrow,  puttest 
off  the  right  time.  Procrastination  is  the  ruin  of 
life  for  all ;  and,  therefore,  each  of  us  is  hurried 
and  unprepared  at  death."  "  Learn  betimes  to 
die,  or  if  it  please  thee  better  to  pass  over  to  the 
gods."  "  He  who  is  least  in  need  of  the  morrow 
will  meet  the  morrow  most  pleasantly."  "  In- 
justice is  not  in  itself  a  bad  thing :  but  only  in  the 
fear,  arising  from  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  wrong- 
doer, that  he  will  not  escape  punishment."  "A 
wise  man  will  not  enter  political  life  unless  some- 
thing extraordinary  should  occur."  "The  free 
man  will  take  his  free  laugh  over  those  who  are 
fain  to  be  reckoned  in  the  list  with  Lycurgus  and 
Solon." 

Epicurus  is  "altogether  without  fears  about 
death,"  which  he  disposes  of  with  a  very  simple, 
and,  from  the  point  of  view  of  his  psychology, 
very  satisfactory  reason.  "Accustom  thyself  in 
the  belief  that  death  is  nothing  to  us,  for  good 
and  evil  are  only  where  they  are  felt,  and  death  is 
the  absence  of  all  feeling  :  therefore  a  right  under- 
standing that  death  is  nothing  to  us  makes  enjoy- 
able the  mortality  of  life,  not  by  adding  to  years 
an  illimitable  time,  but  by  taking  away  the  yearn- 
ing after  immortality.  For  in  life  there  can  be 
nothing  to  fear,  to  him  who  has  thoroughly  appre- 


8  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

hended  that  there  is  nothing  to  cause  fear  in  what 
time  we  are  not  alive.  Foolish,  therefore,  is  the 
man  who  says  that  he  fears  death,  not  because  it 
will  pain  when  it  comes,  but  because  it  pains  in 
the  prospect.  Whatsoever  causes  no  annoyance 
when  it  is  present  causes  only  a  groundless  pain 
by  the  expectation  thereof.  Death,  therefore,  the 
most  awful  of  evils,  is  nothing  to  us,  seeing  that 
when  we  are,  death  is  not  yet,  and  when  death 
comes,  then  we  are  not.  It  is  nothing  then,  either 
to  the  living  or  the  dead,  for  it  is  not  found  with 
the  living,  and  the  dead  exist  no  longer." 

These  words  of  the  master,  given  with  no  at- 
tempt to  reconcile  their  apparent  inconsistencies, 
convey  very  fairly  the  substance  of  his  teaching, 
including  both  its  excellences  and  its  deep  defects. 
The  exalted  esteem  in  which  his  doctrines  were 
held,  leading  his  disciples  to  commit  them  to  mem- 
ory as  sacred  and  verbally  inspired ;  the  personal 
reverence  for  his  character;  and  the  extravagant 
expectations  as  to  what  his  philosophy  was  to  do 
for  the  world,  together  with  a  gUmpse  into  the 
Epicurean  idea  of  heaven,  are  well  illustrated  by 
the  following  sentences  at  the  opening  of  the 
third  book  of  Lucretius,  addressed  to  Epicurus :  — 

"Thee,  who  first  wast  able  amid  such  thick 
darkness  to  raise  on  high  so  bright  a  beacon  and 


THE  EPICUREAN   PURSUIT  OF   PLEASURE  9 

shed  a  light  on  the  true  interests  of  life,  thee  I 
follow,  glory  of  the  Greek  race,  and  plant  now 
my  footsteps  firmly  fixed  in  thy  imprinted  marks, 
not  so  much  from  a  desire  to  rival  thee  as  that 
from  the  love  I  bear  thee  I  yearn  to  imitate  thee. 
Thou,  father,  art  discoverer  of  things,  thou  fur- 
nishest  us  with  fatherly  precepts,  and  like  as  bees 
sip  of  all  things  in  the  flowery  lawns,  we,  O  glo- 
rious being,  in  like  manner,  feed  from  out  thy 
pages  upon  all  the  golden  maxims,  golden  I  say, 
most  worthy  ever  of  endless  life.  For  soon  as 
thy  philosophy  issuing  from  a  godlike  intellect 
has  begun  with  loud  voice  to  proclaim  the  nature 
of  things,  the  terrors  of  the  mind  are  dispelled, 
the  walls  of  the  world  part  asunder,  I  see  things 
in  operation  throughout  the  whole  void  :  the  divin- 
ity of  the  gods  is  revealed,  and  their  tranquil 
abodes  which  neither  winds  do  shake,  nor  clouds 
drench  with  rains  nor  snow  congealed  by  sharp 
frost  harms  with  hoary  fall :  an  ever  cloudless  ether 
o'ercanopies  them,  and  they  laugh  with  light  shed 
largely  round.  Nature  too  supplies  all  their  wants, 
and  nothing  ever  impairs  their  peace  of  mind." 

Horace  is  so  saturated  with  Epicureanism  that 
it  is  hard  to  select  any  one  of  his  odes  as  more 
expressive  of  it  than  another.  His  ode  on  the 
*'  Philosophy  of  Life "  perhaps  presents   it  in  as 


lO  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

short  compass  as  any.  He  asks  what  he  shall 
pray  for  ?  Not  crops,  and  ivory,  and  gold  gained 
by  laborious  and  risky  enterprise;  but  healthy, 
solid  contentment  with  the  simple,  universal  pleas- 
ures near  at  hand. 

"  Why  to  Apollo's  shrine  repair 
New  hallowed  ?    Why  present  with  prayer 
Libation  ?     Not  those  crops  to  gain, 
Which  fill  Sardinia's  teeming  plain, 

"  Herds  from  Calabria's  sunny  fields, 
Nor  ivory  that  India  yields, 
Nor  gold,  nor  tracts  where  Liris  glides 
So  noiseless  down  its  drowsy  sides. 

*'  Blest  owners  of  Calenian  vines, 
Crop  them  ;  ye  merchants,  drain  the  wines, 
That  cargoes  brought  from  Syria  buy, 
In  cups  of  gold.     For  ye,  who  try 

"  The  broad  Atlantic  thrice  a  year 
And  never  drown,  must  sure  be  dear 
To  gods  in  heaven.    Me  —  small  my  need  — 
Light  mallows,  olives,  chiccory,  feed. 

^^j/'Give  me  then  health,  Apollo;  give 
^    Sound  mind  ;  on  gotten  goods  to  live 
D   I    Contented  ;  and  let  song  engage 
'   An  honoured,  not  a  base,  old  age." 

For  a  lesson  from  the  new  Epicurean  testament 
we  cannot  do  better  than  turn  to  the  sensible 
pages  of  Herbert  Spencer's  "  Data  of  Ethics." 

"  The  pursuit  of  individual  happiness  within  those 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         II 

limits  prescribed  by  social  conditions  is  the  first 
requisite  to  the  attainment  of  the  greatest  general 
happiness.  To  see  this  it  needs  but  to  contrast 
one  whose  self-regard  has  maintained  bodily  well- 
being  with  one  whose  regardlessness  of  self  has 
brought  its  natural  results ;  and  then  to  ask  what 
must  be  the  contrast  between  two  societies  formed 
of  two  such  kinds  of  individuals. 

"  Bounding  out  of  bed  after  an  unbroken  sleep, 
singing  or  whistling  as  he  dresses,  coming  down 
with  beaming  face  ready  to  laugh  on  the  smallest 
provocation,  the  healthy  man  of  high  powers, 
conscious  of  past  successes  and,  by  his  energy, 
quickness,  resource,  made  confident  of  the  future, 
enters  on  the  day's  business  not  with  repugnance 
but  with  gladness  ;  and  from  hour  to  hour  experi- 
encing satisfactions  from  work  effectually  done, 
comes  home  with  an  abundant  surplus  of  energy 
remaining  for  hours  of  relaxation.  Far  otherwise 
is  it  with  one  who  is  enfeebled  by  great  neglect  of 
self.  Already  deficient,  his  energies  are  made 
more  deficient  by  constant  endeavours  to  execute 
tasks  that  prove  beyond  his  strength,  and  by  the 
resulting  discouragement.  Hours  of  leisure  which, 
rightly  passed,  bring  pleasures  that  raise  the  tide 
of  life  and  renew  the  powers  of  work,  cannot  be 
utiUzed :    there   is   not  vigour  enough  for  enjoy- 


12  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

ments  involving  action,  and   lack  of   spirits  pre- 
vents passive  enjoyments  from  being  entered  upon 
with  zest.     In  brief,  life  becomes  a  burden.     Now 
if,  as  must  be  admitted,  in  a  community  composed 
of  individuals  like  the  first  the  happiness  will  be 
relatively  great,  while  in  one  composed  of  indi- 
NjTj  viduals  like  the  last  there  will  be  relatively  little 
^  j  happiness,  or  rather  much  misery ;  it  must  be  ad- 
,    ;  mitted  that  conduct  causing  the  one  result  is  good 
^  ,;  and  conduct  causing  the  other  is  bad. 

/    "  He  who  carries  self-regard  far  enough  to  keep 

/  himself  in  good  health  and  high  spirits,  in  the  first 
place   thereby  becomes  an   immediate   source  of 

,  happiness   to  those   around,   and    in   the   second 

{  place  maintains  the  ability  to  increase  their  happi- 
ness by  altruistic  actions.     But  one  whose  bodily 

I  vigour  and  mental  health  are  undermined  by  self- 
sacrifice  carried  too  far,  in  the  first  place  becomes 
to  those  around  a  cause  of  depression,  and  in  the 
second   place   renders  himself   incapable,  or  less 

\  capable,  of  actively  furthering  their  welfare. 
[  "  Full  of  vivacity,  the  one  is  ever  welcome.N^  For 
his  wife  he  has  smiles  and  jocose  speeches ;  for 
his  children  stores  of  fun  and  play;  for  his 
friends  pleasant  talk  interspersed  with  the  sallies 
of  wit  that  come  from  buoyancy.  Contrariwise, 
the  other  is  shunned.      The  irritability  resulting 


THE  EPICUREAN  PURSUIT  OF  PLEASURE         1 3 

now  from  ailments,  now  from  failures  caused  by 
feebleness,  his  family  has  daily  to  bear.  Lacking 
adequate  energy  for  joining  in  them,  he  has  at 
best  but  a  tepid  interest  in  the  amusements  of  his 
children;  and  he  is  called  a  wet  blanket  by  his 
friends.  Little  account  as  our  ethical  reasonings 
take  note  of  it,  yet  is  the  fact  obvious  that  since 
happiness  and  misery  are  infectious,  such  regard 
for  self  as  conduces  to  health  and  high  spirits  is  a 
benefaction  to  others,  and  such  disregard  of  self 
as  brings  on  suffering,  bodily  or  mental,  is  a  male- 
faction to  others. 

"  The  adequately  egoistic  individual  retains  those 
powers  which  make  altruistic  activities  possible. 
The  individual  who  is  inadequately  egoistic  loses 
more  or  less  of  his  ability  to  be  altruistic.  The 
truth  of  the  one  proposition  is  self-evident;  and 
the  truth  of  the  other  is  daily  forced  on  us  by 
examples.  Note  a  few  of  them.  Here  is  a 
mother  who,  brought  up  in  the  insane  fashion 
usual  among  the  cultivated,  has  a  physique  not 
strong  enough  for  suckling  her  infant,  but  who, 
knowing  that  its  natural  food  is  the  best,  and 
anxious  for  its  welfare,  continues  to  give  milk  for 
a  longer  time  than  her  system  will  bear.  Even- 
tually the  accumulating  reaction  tells.  There 
comes  exhaustion  running,  it  may  be,  into  iUpes? 


14  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

caused  by  depletion;  occasionally  ending  in  death, 
and  often  entailing  chronic  weakness.  She  be- 
comes, perhaps  for  a  time,  perhaps  permanently, 
incapable  of  carrying  on  household  affairs ;  her 
other  children  suffer  from  the  loss  of  maternal 
attention ;  and  where  the  income  is  small,  pay- 
ments for  nurse  and  doctor  tell  injuriously  on  the 
whole  family.  Instance,  again,  what  not  unfre- 
quently  happens  with  the  father.  Similarly 
prompted  by  a  high  sense  of  obligation,  and 
misled  by  current  moral  theories  into  the  notion 
that  self-denial  may  rightly  be  carried  to  any 
extent,  he  daily  continues  his  office  work  for  long 
hours  regardless  of  hot  head  and  cold  feet;  and 
debars  himself  from  social  pleasures,  for  which  he 
thinks  he  can  afford  neither  time  nor  money. 
What  comes  of  this  entirely  unegoistic  course.? 
Eventually  a  sudden  collapse,  sleeplessness,  inabil- 
ity to  work.  That  rest  which  he  would  not  give 
himself  when  his  sensations  prompted  he  has  now 
to  take  in  long  measure.  The  extra  earnings  laid 
by  for  the  benefit  of  his  family  are  quickly  swept 
away  by  costly  journeys  in  aid  of  recovery  and  by 
the  many  expenses  which  illness  entails.  Instead 
of  increased  ability  to  do  his  duty  by  his  offspring 
there  comes  now  inability.  Lifelong  evils  on 
them  replace  hoped-for  goods.     And  so  is  it,  too, 


THE  EPICUREAN   PURSUIT  OF   PLEASURE         1 5 

with  the  social  effects  of  inadequate  egoism.  All 
grades  furnish  examples  of  the  mischiefs,  positive 
and  negative,  inflicted  on  society  by  excessive 
neglect  of  self.  Now  the  case  is  that  of  a 
labourer  who,  conscientiously  continuing  his  work 
under  a  broiling  sun,  spite  of  violent  protests  from 
his  feelings,  dies  of  sunstroke ;  and  leaves  his 
family  a  burden  to  the  parish.  Now  the  case 
is  that  of  a  clerk  whose  eyes  permanently  fail 
from  overstraining,  or  who,  daily  writing  for  hours 
after  his  fingers  are  painfully  cramped,  is  attacked 
with  'scrivener's  palsy,'  and,  unable  to  write  at 
all,  sinks  with  aged  parents  into  poverty  which 
friends  are  called  on  to  mitigate.  "  And  now  the 
case  is  that  of  a  man  devoted  to  public  ends  who, 
shattering  his  health  by  ceaseless  application,  fails 
to  achieve  all  he  might  have  achieved  by  a  more 
reasonable  apportionment  of  his  time  between 
labour  on  behalf  of  others,  and  ministration  to  his 
own  needs." 

After  this  lengthy  prose  extract,  let  us  turn  to 
the  modern  Epicurean  poets. 

At  once  the  best  and  the  worst  rendering  of 
Epicureanism  into  verse  is  Fitzgerald's  translation 
of  Omar  Khayyam.  It  is  the  best  because  of  the 
frankness  with  which  it  draws  out  to  its  logical 
conclusion,   in   a  cynical   despair    of    everything 


1 6  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

nobler  than  the  pleasure  of  the  moment,  the  conse- 
quences of  identifying  the  self  with  mere  pleasure- ' 
seeking.  It  is  the  worst  because,  instead  of 
presenting  Epicureanism  mixed  with  nobler  ele- 
ments, as  Walt  Whitman  and  Stevenson  do,  it 
gives  us  the  pure  and  undiluted  article  as  a  final 
gospefl  of  life.  The  fact  that  it  has  proved  such  a 
fad  during  the  past  few  years  is  striking  evidence 
of  the  husky  fare  on  which  our  modern  prodigals 
can  be  content  to  feed. 

"Come  fill  the  Cup,  and  in  the  fire  of  Spring 
Your  Winter-garment  of  repentance  fling  : 
The  bird  of  Time  has  but  a  little  way 
To  flutter  —  and  the  Bird  is  on  the  Wing. 

"A  Book  of  Verses  underneath  the  Bough, 
A  Jug  of  Wine,  a  Loaf  of  Bread  —  and  Thou 
Beside  me  singing  in  the  Wilderness  — 
Oh,  Wilderness  were  Paradise  enow. 

"  Ah,  my  Beloved,  fill  the  Cup  that  clears 
To-day  of  past  Regrets  and  future  Fears  : 
To-morrow !  —  Why,  To-morrow  I  may  be 
Myself  with  Yesterday's  Sev'n  thousand  Years. 

jt"  I  sent  my  soul  through  the  Invisible, 
Some  letter  of  that  After-life  to  spell : 
And  by  and  by  my  Soul  return'd  to  me. 
And  answer'd,  "  I  myself  am  Heav'n  and  Hell : 

["  Heav'n  but  the  vision  of  fulfiU'd  Desire, 
And  Hell  the  Shadow  of  a  Soul  on  Fire, 
Cast  on  the  Darkness  into  which  Ourselves, 
So  late  emerged  from,  shall  so  soon  expire."     ' 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         1/ 

From  this  melancholy  attempt  to  offer  us  Epicu- 
reanism as  a  complete  account  of  life,  over- 
shadowed as  it  is  by  the  gloom  of  the  Infinite 
which  the  man  who  stakes  his  all  on  momentary 
pleasure  feels  doomed  to  forego,  it  is  a  relief  to 
turn  to  men  who  strike  cheerfully  and  firmly  the 
Epicurean  note ;  but  pass  instantly  on  to  blend  it 
with  sterner  notes  and  larger  views  of  life,  in 
which  it  plays  its  essential,  yet  strictly  subordi- 
nate part. 

Of  all  the  men  who  thus  strike  scattered  Epicu- 
rean notes,  without  attempting  the  impossible  task 
of  making  a  harmonious  and  satisfactory  tune  out 
of  them,  our  Amerjcan  Pagan,  Walt  Whitman,  is 
the  best  example. 

"  What  is  commonest,  cheapest,  nearest,  easiest,  is  Me, 
Me  going  in  for  my  chances,  spending  for  vast  returns, 
Adorning  myself  to  bestow  myself  on  the  first  that  will  take 

me, 
Not  asking  the  sky  to  come  down  to  my  good  will, 
Scattering  it  freely  forever. 

"  O  the  joy  of  manly  self-hood  ! 

';   To  b*  servile  to  none,  to  defer  to  none,  not  to  any  t3rrant 
known  or  unknown, 
To  walk  with  erect  carriage,  a  step  springy  and  elastic, 
To  look  with  calm  gaze  or  with  flashing  eye, 
;,;     To  speak  with  a  full  and  sonorous  voice  out  of  a  broad  chest, 
O  .  )  To  confront  with  your  personality  all  the  other  personalities 
1       of  the  earth. 


Qy> 


V 

^  l8  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

"  O  while  I  live  to  be  the  ruler  of  life,  not  a  slave, 

;    To  meet  life  as  a  powerful  conqueror, 

1    No  fumes,  no  ennui,  no  more  complaints  or  scornful  criticisms, 
"^      ^  To  these  proud  laws  of  the  air,  the  water,  and  the  ground, 
\  *    j         proving  my  interior  soul  impregnable, 
^  And  nothing  exterior  shall  ever  take  command  of  me. 

^  I     "  For  not  life's  joys  alone  I  sing,  repeating  —  the  joy  of 

5\    i        death! 

Y         The  beautiful  touch  of  death,  soothing  and  benumbing  a  few 

\  moments,  for  reasons, 

1  ^f,<N    Myself  discharging  my  excrementitious  body  to  be  burn'd,  or 

^  render'd  to  powder,  or  buried. 


^ 


My  real  body  doubtless  left  to  me  for  other  spheres, 
My  voided  body  nothing  more  to  me,  returning  to  thi 
cations,  further  offices,  eternal  uses  of  the  earth. 


'=^. 


"  O  to  have  life  henceforth  a  poem  of  new  joys ! 
\^>       To  dance,  clap  hands,  exult,  shout,  skip,  leap,  roll  on,  float  on ! 
\   To  be  a  sailor  of  the  world  bound  for  all  ports, 
'  A  swift  and  swelling  ship  full  of  rich  words,  full  of  joys." 

Whitman,  with  this  wild  ecstasy,  to  be  sure  is 
an  Epicurean  and  something  more.  Indeed,  pure 
Epicureanism,  unmixed  with  better  elements,  is 
rather  hard  to  find  in  modern  literature.  One 
other  hymn,  by  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  likewise 
adds  to  pure  Epicureanism  a  note  of  strenuous 
intensity  in  the  great  task  of  happiness  which  was 
foreign  to  the  more  easy-going  form  of  the  ancient 
doctrine.  In  Stevenson  Epicureanism  is  only  a 
flavour  to  more  substantial  viands. 


THE    EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         1 9 

THE   CELESTIAL   SURGEON 

"  If  I  have  feltered  more  or  less 

In  my  great  task  of  happiness ; 

If  I  have  moved  among  my  race 

And  shown  no  glorious  morning  face ; 

If  beams  from  happy  human  eyes 

Have  moved  me  not ;  if  morning  skies, 
I      Books,  and  my  food,  and  summer  rain 
•      Knocked  on  my  sullen  heart  in  vain :  — 

Lord,  thy  most  pointed  pleasure  take 

And  stab  my  spirit  broad  awake ! 
j      Or,  Lord,  if  too  obdurate  I, 

Choose  thou,  before  that  spirit  die, 

A  piercing  pain,  a  killing  sin, 

And  to  my  dead  heart  run  them  in." 

While  we  are  with  Stevenson,  we  may  as  well 
conclude  our  selections  from  the  Epicurean  scrip- 
tures in  these  words  from  his  Christmas  Sermon : 
"  Gentleness  and  cheerfulness,  these  come  before 
all  morality  :  they  are  the  perfect  duties.  If  your 
morals  make  you  dreary,  depend  upon  it  they 
are  wrong,  I  do  not  say,  'give  them  up,'  for 
they  may  be  all  you  have ;  but  conceal  them  like 
a  vice,  lest  they  should  spoil  the  Lives  of  better 
men." 


20  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

II 

THE  EPICUREAN  VIEW   OF  WORK  AND   PLAY 

i     Pleasure  is  our  great  task,  "  the  gist  of  life,  the 
end  of  ends."     To  be  happy  ourselves  and  radi- 
ating centres  of   happiness  to   choice   circles  of 
I  congenial  friends,  —  this  is  the  Epicurean  ideal. 
The  world  is  a  vast  reservoir  of  potential  pleas- 
ures.    Our  problem  is  to  scoop  out  for  ourselves 
.  and  our  friends  full  measure  of  these  pleasures 
I  as  they  go  floating  by.      We  did  not  make  the 
/  world.     It  made  itself  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
1  atoms.     It  would  be  foolish  for  us  to  try  to  alter 
it.      Our   only  concern   is   to   get   out  of   it   all 
the  pleasure  we  can ;  without  troubling  ourselves 
to  put  anything  valuable  back  into  it.      Since  it 
is  accidental,  impersonal,  we  owe  it  nothing.     We 
simply  owe  ourselves  as  big  a  share  of  pleasure  as 
we  can  grasp  and  hold.  / 

/   This,  however,  is  a  task  in  which  it  is  easy  to 

'^fmake  mistakes.      We    need    prudence    to    avoid 

^  cheating  ourselves  with  short-lived  pleasures  that 

^  cost  too   much;    wisdom   to   choose  the   simpler 

pleasures  that  cost  less  and  last  longer.      Such 

shrewd  calculation  of  the  relative  cost  and  worth 

of  different  pleasures  is  the  sum  and  substance  of 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE        21 

the  Epicurean  philosophy.  He  who  is  shrewd 
to  discern  and  prompt  to  snatch  the  most  pleasure 
at  least  cost,  as  it  is  offered  on  the  bargain 
counter  of  life,  —  he  is  the  Epicurean  sage. 

We  might  work  this  out  into  a  great  variety 
of  applications :  but  one  or  two  spheres  must 
suffice.  Eating  and  drinking,  as  the  most  ele- 
mental relations  of  life,  are  the  ones  commonly 
chosen  as  applications  of  the  Epicurean  principle. 
These  applications,  however,  the  selections  from 
Epicurus  and  Horace  have  already  made  clear. 

The  Epicurean  will  regulate  his  diet,  not  by  the 
immediate,  trivial,  short-lived  pleasures  of  taste, 
though  these  he  will  by  no  means  despise,  but 
mainly  by  their  permanent  effects  upon  health. 
Wholesome  food,  and  enough  of  it,  daintily  pre- 
pared and  served,  he  will  do  his  best  to  obtain. 
But  elaborate  and  ostentatious  feasting  he  will 
avoid,  as  involving  too  much  expense  and  trouble, 
and  too  heavy  penalties  of  disease  and  discomfort. 
I  He  will  find  out  by  practical  experience  the  quan- 
tity, quality,  and  variety  of  simple  food  that  keeps 
him  in  perfect  condition ;  and  no  enticements  of 
sweetmeats  or  stimulants  will  divert  him  from  the 
simplicity  in  which  the  most  permanent  pleasure 
is  found.  To  eat  cake  and  candy  between  meals, 
to   sip  tea  at  all  hours,   no  less  than   to  drink 


22  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

whiskey  to  the  point  of  intoxication,  are  sins 
against  the  simplicity  of  the  true  Epicurean 
regimen. 

The  Epicurean  will  not  lose  an  hour  of  needed 
sleep  nor  tolerate  such  an  abomination  as  an  alarm 
clock  in  his  house.  If  he  permits  himself  to  be 
awakened  in  the  morning,  it  will  be  as  Thomas  B. 
Reed  used  to  when,  as  a  student  at  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege, he  was  obliged  to  be  in  chapel  at  six  o'clock. 
He  had  the  janitor  call  him  at  half-past  four,  in 
order  that  he  might  have  the  luxury  of  feeling  that 
he  had  another  whole  hour  in  which  to  sleep,  and 
then  call  him  again  at  the  last  moment  which  would 
permit  him  to  dress  in  time  for  chapel. 

These  things,  however,  we  may  for  the  most 
part  take  for  granted.  We  do  not  require  a 
philosopher  to  regulate  our  diet  for  us ;  or  to 
put  us  to  bed  at  night,  and  tuck  us  in,  and  hear 
us  say  our  prayers.  Those  elementary  lessons 
were  doubtless  needed  in  the  childhood  of  the 
race.  The  selection  from  Spencer  on  work  and 
play  strikes  closer  to  the  problem  of  the  modern 
man  ;  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  we  all  sorely 
need  to  go  to  school  to  Epicurus.  Perhaps  we 
are  inclined  to  look  down  on  Epicurus's  ideal 
as  a  low  one.  Well,  if  it  is  a  low  ideal,  it  is 
all  the  more  disgraceful  to   fall   below  it.     And 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         23 

most  of  US  do  fall  below  it  every  day  of  our 
tense  and  restless  lives.  Let  us  test  ourselves 
by  this  ideal,  and  answer  honestly  the  questions 
it  puts  to  us. 

How  many  of  us  are  slaving  all  day  and  late 
into  the  night  to  add  artificial  superfluities  to 
the  simple  necessities  ?  How  many  of  us  know 
how  to  stop  working  when  it  begins  to  encroach 
upon  our  health ;  and  to  cut  off  anxiety  and 
worry  altogether  ^  How  many  of  us  measure 
the  amount  and  intensity  of  our  toil  by  our  physi- 
cal strength ;  doing  what  we  can  do  healthfully, 
cheerfully,  joyously,  and  leaving  the  rest  undone, 
instead  of  straining  up  to  the  highest  notch 
of  nervous  tension  during  early  manhood  and 
womanhood,  only  to  break  down  when  the  life 
forces  begin  to  turn  against  us.?  Every  man  in 
any  position  of  responsibility  and  influence  has 
opportunity  to  do  the  work  of  twenty  men.  How 
many  of  us  in  such  circumstances  choose  the  one 
thing  we  can  do  best,  and  leave  the  other  nine- 
teen for  other  people  to  do,  or  else  to  remain 
undone  ?  How  many  of  us  have  ever  seriously 
stopped  to  think  where  the  limit  of  healthful 
effort  and  endurance  lies,  unless  insomnia  or 
dyspepsia  or  nervous  prostration  have  laid  their 
heavy  hands  upon  us  and  compelled  us  to  pause  ? 


24  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

Every  breakdown  from  avoidable  causes,  every 
stroke  of  work  we  do  after  the  border-land  of 
exhaustion  and  nervous  strain  is  crossed,  is  a 
crime  against  the  teaching  of  Epicurus ;  and 
these  diseases  that  beset  our  modern  business 
life  are  the  penalties  with  which  nature  visits 
us  in  vindication  of  the  wisdom  of  his  teachings. 
Every  day  that  we  work  beyond  our  strength; 
every  hour  that  we  spend  in  consequent  exhaus- 
tion and  depression ;  every  minute  that  we  give 
over  to  worrying  about  things .  beyond  our  imme- 
diate control,  we  either  fall  below,  or  else  rise 
above,  Epicurus's  level. 

If  we  rise  above  him,  to  serve  higher  ideals, 
conscious  of  the  sacrifice  we  make,  and  clear 
about  the  superior  ends  we  gain  thereby,  then 
we  may  be  forgiven.  What  some  of  those  higher 
ideals  are  we  shall  have  occasion  to  consider 
later.    But  to  work  ourselves  into  depression,  dis- 

\  ease,  and  pain,  for  no  better  reason  than  to  get 
high  mark  in  some  rank-book  or  other,  to  gratify 
somebody's  false   vanity,  to   get  together  a  little 

I  more    gold    than   we    can    spend   wisely   or    our 

<iM  children  can  inherit  without  enervation,  to  live  in 

'^  1  a  bigger  house  than  our  neighbour  has  or  we  can 

•^  1  afford  to  take  care  of  —  to  work  for   such   ends 

■  as  these  beyond  the  point  where  work  is  healthy 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         2$ 

and  happy,  is  to  commit  a  sin  which  neither 
Epicurus  nor  Nature  will  forgive.  With  the  peo- 
ple who  have  risen  above  Epicurus,  and  are  de- 
liberately sacrificing  to  some  extent  the  Epicurean 
to  one  of  the  higher  ideals,  as  I  have  said,  we 
have  no  quarrel ;  for  them  we  have  only  hearty 
commendation.  We  do  not  ask  the  mother  whose 
child  is  dangerously  sick,  the  statesman  in  a  politi- 
cal crisis,  the  artist  when  the  conception  of  his 
great  work  comes  over  him,  to  heed  for  the  time 

being  the  limits  of  strength  and  the   conditions 
i 
of   completest   health.      All   we   ask   of   them   is 

that  later  on,  when  the  child  has  recovered,  when 
the  crisis  is  past,  when  the  picture  is  painted, 
they  shall  reverently  and  humbly  pay  to  Epicurus, 
or  to  Nature  whom  he  represents,  the  penalty 
for  their  sin,  by  a  corresponding  period  of  com- 
plete rest  and  relaxation.  We  must  bear  strain 
at  times;  and  Nature  will  forgive  us  if  we  do 
not  take  it  too  often.  But  we  must  not  bunch 
our  strains.  We  must  not  pass  from  one  strain 
to  another,  and  another,  without  periods  of  re- 
laxation  between.  We  must  not  let  the  attitude 
'  of  strain  become  chronic,  and  develop  into  a  moral 
r  tetanus,  which  keeps  us  forever  on  the  rack  of 
exertion  from  sheer  restless  inability  to  sit  down 
and  enjoy  ourselves. 


26  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

What  we  take  from  excessive  work  Epicurus 
would  bid  us  add  to  needed  play.  Play  is  an 
arrangement  by  which  we  get  artificially,  in  highly 
concentrated  form,  the  pleasure  which  in  ordinary- 
life  is  diffused  over  long  periods,  and  attainable 
only  in  attenuated  form.  Play  puts  the  great 
fundamental  pleasures  of  the  race  at  the  disposal 
of  the  individual. 

Foot-ball,  for  instance,  gives  the  student  of 
to-day  the  essential  joy  in  combat  of  his  barbarian 
ancestors,  with  the  modern  field-marshal's  delight 
in  subtle  tragedy  thrown  in.  Base-ball  gives  the 
intense  zest  that  comes  of  speed,  accuracy,  and 
cunning  exercised  in  emergencies.  Golf,  in 
milder  form,  gives  us  the  pleasure  that  comes  of 
accuracy  of  aim  and  calculation  of  conditions  in 
good  company  and  in  the  open  air.  Billiards  give 
to  the  clerk  cramped  all  day  over  his  desk  the 
joy  of  a  delicate  touch  which  otherwise  would 
be  the  exclusive  property  of  his  artisan  brother. 
I  The  various  games  of  cards  give  the  mechanic 
'  and  the  housewife  a  taste  at  evening  of  the  eager 
interests  that  fill  the  banker's  and  the  broker's 
days.  Checkers  and  chess  give  to  the  humblest 
in  their  homes  some  touch  of  the  pleasures  of 
the  general  and  admiral.  Dancing  carries  to  the 
limit  of  orderly  expression    that    delight  in    the 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         2/ 

person  and  presence  of  the  opposite  sex  which 
otherwise  would  have  to  be  postponed  until  youth 
was  able  to  assume  the  more  serious  responsibili- 
ties of  permanent  relationships.  Sailing,  tramp- 
ing, camping  out,  hunting,  fishing,  mountain 
climbing,  are  all  devices  for  bringing  into  the 
lives  of  studious,  strenuous,  city  people  the  ele- 
mental pleasures  which  otherwise  would  be  the 
monopoly  of  sailors,  fishermen,  foresters,  and 
explorers.  Swimming,  skating,  bicycle  riding, 
driving  a  horse  or  an  automobile,  all  give  the 
keen  joy  that  comes  of  the  mastery  of  graceful 
and  forceful  motion. 

The  theatre,  which  embodies  so  distinctively  the 
peculiar    essence   of    play  that  its  performances 
have  appropriated  the  name,  takes  us  in  a  couple 
of  hours  through  the  epitomised    experience   of 
many  persons  extending  over  many  years  in  cir- 
cumstances far  removed  from  our  individual  lives. 
Poetry,   novels,   biographies,    histories,    painting, 
music,  and  all  the  forms   of  art  perform  for  us 
this   same  function.      They  take  us   out  of    our 
local  and  temporal  situation,  and   let  us  live  in      q;* 
other  days  and  other  lands,  in  other  customs  and    /  J[ 
costumes;    and   so   enormously  widen   the  world    1  ^ 
of   experience  we   imaginatively   make   our  own. 
Besides  in  all  the  forms  of  play  and  art  the  ends 


28  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

are  made  artificially  simple,  the  means  are  made 
supernaturally  accessible ;  so  that  instead  of  toil- 
ing for  years  in  doubt  of  results  as  in  actual  work, 
we    experience    in    play,  and  witness   in  artistic 
representation,    the    whole    process    of    selecting 
materials  and  moulding  them  to  a  successful  issue 
in  a  few  minutes,  or  a  few  hours  at  most.     All 
this     reacts    upon  our  power  to   prosecute  with 
I  [  confidence  the    remoter  ends,    and    marshal   the 
f  j   more  obdurate  means  of  real  work.     It  expands 
and  limbers  our  capacity  to  subordinate  means  to 
ends  and  find  delight  in  the  process  as  well  as  in 
the  outcome.      Hence   a   man  who   goes  a  year 
1  without  a  considerable  period  given  over  to  play, 
I  or  a  week  without  at  least  one  or  two  solid  periods 
of  it,  or  lets  many  days  go  by  without  any  play 
whatever,   is  selling  his  birthright  of  personality 
/  for  a  mess  of  pottage.     Psychology  and  pedagogy 
1  are  recognising  the  important  function  of  play  in 
I  the   development  of  personality  as  never  before. 
Professor    Baldwin,    in  his  "  Social    and    Ethical 
Interpretations,"  sums  up  the   functions  of   play 
in  these   words  :  "  In  the  education  of  the  indi- 
vidual  for   his   life-work   in  a  network  of   social 
relationships    play  is  a  most   important  form  of 
organic  exercise,  —  a  most  important    method  of 
realisation  of  the  social  instincts;  gives  flexibility 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         29 

of  mind  and  body  with  self-control;  gives  con- 
stant opportunity  for  imitative  learning  and  inven- 
tion, and  is  the  experimental  verification  of  the 
benefits  and  pleasures  of  united  action." 

Ill 

THE   EPICUREAN   PRICE   OF   HAPPINESS 

Whoever  contracts  his  work  and  expands  his 
play,  on  Epicurean  principles,  will  of  course  have 
common  sense  enough  to  cut  off  hurry  and  worry 
altogether.  Both  are  sheer  waste  and  wanton- 
ness, —  the  most  foolish  and  wicked  things  in  the 
whole  list  of  forbidden  sins.  The  Epicurean  will 
live  his  life  in  care-tight,  worry-proof  compart- 
ments ;  working  with  all  his  might  while  he  works ; 
and  then  cutting  it  off  short ;  never  letting  the 
cares  of  work  intrude  on  the  precious  precincts  of 
well-earned  leisure,  or  permitting  the  strain  of 
remembered  or  anticipated  toil  to  mar  the  hours 
sacred  to  rest  and  recreation.  Some  things  are  \ 
bound  to  go  wrong  in  every  life.  That  is  our 
misfortune.  But  there  is  no  need  of  brooding  over 
them  in  gratuitous  grief  after  they  have  gone,  or 
dreading  them  in  gloomy  anticipation  before  they 
come.  If  either  in  anticipation  or  in  retrospect 
these  evils  are  permitted  to  darken  the  hours  when 


30  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

1  they  are  physically  absent,  that  is  not  our  misfor- 
I  tune ;  it  is  our  folly  and  our  fault. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  in  these  days  about  mind 

cures,  and  rest  cures,  and  faith  cures,  and  cures  by 

hypnotism,  and  cures  by  patent   medicines.      If 

anybody  needs  these  cures,  of  course  he  is  welcome 

to  them ;  though  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the 

stalwart  conservative  who   refused   proffered  aid 

of  this  sort  with  the  remark  that  he  would  rather 

die  in  the  hands  of  a  skilful  physician  than  be 

/  cured  by  a  quack,  f"  Strict  obedience  to  the  plain, 

homely  doctrine  of  Epicurus  would  prevent  ninety- 

j  nine  one  hundredths  of  the  physical  and  mental 

I  ailments  which  these  various  systems  of  healing 

i  profess  to  cure.     In  almost  every  such  case  work, 

I   or  the  square  of  work  which  is  hurry,  or  the  cube 

of  work  which  is  worry,  carried  beyond  the  sane 

limits  which  Epicurus  prescribes,  is  at  the  root  of 

trouble.      Where  it  is  not  work  and  worry,  it  is 

their  passive  counterparts,  grief  nursed  long  after 

its  occasion  has  gone  by,  or  fear  harboured  long 

^      before  its  appropriate  object  has  arrived.       Cut 

/  '    these  off  and  all  the  use  you  will  have  for  either 

**  I    healers  or  physicians  will  be  on  such  compara- 

^      tively  rare  occasions  as  birth,  death,  contagious 

diseases,  and  unavoidable  accident.     You  will  not 

'  be    the    chronic    patient   of   any    doctor   regular 


THE  EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         3 1 

/or  irregular ;  or  the  consumer  of  any  medicine, 
patented  or  prescribed. 

Neither  useless  regrets  for  the  past  nor  prof- 
itless forebodings  for  the  future  should  ever  cast 
their  shadows  over  the  present,  which  taken  in 
itself  is  always  endurable,  and  may  generally 
be  made  positively  happy.  Memory  should  be  ] 
purged  of  all  its  unpleasantness  before  its  pic- 
tures are  permitted  to  appear  before  the  foot- 
lights of  reflection ;  and  the  searchlight  of 
expectation  should  always  be  turned  toward  the 
pleasures  that  are  still  in  store  for  us.  Past  and 
future  are  mainly  in  our  power,  so  far  as  the 
quality  of  things  we  remember  and  anticipate 
are  concerned.  And  even  the  brief  and  fleeting 
present  is  mainly  filled  by  reminiscence  and  an- 
ticipation, so  that  it  too  is  largely  what  we  please 
to  make  it. 

'  The  world  is  so  full  of  a  number  of  things, 
I'm  sure  we  should  all  be  as  happy  as  kings." 

If  any  one  of  us  is  not  happy  all  the  time, 
except  at  the  rare  instants  when  toothache,  or 
the  news  of  a  friend's  illness  or  death,  or  a  bad 
turn  in  our  investments  takes  us  by  surprise  —  if 
happiness  is  not  the  dominant  tone  of  our  ordi- 
nary Ufe,  it  is  simply  because  we  do  not  want 
it,  in  that  thoughtful,  enterprising,  insistent  way 


32  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

in  which  the  scholar  wants  knowledge,  or  the 
business  man  wants  money,  or  the  politician 
wants  votes.  Whoever  is  willing  to  pay  the 
price  in  prudent  planning  of  his  daily  pleasures, 
in  relentless  exclusion  of  the  enterprises  and  in- 
dulgences that  cost  more  pain  than  they  can 
return  in  pleasure ;  whoever  will  cut  out  remorse- 
lessly the  things  in  his  past  life  on  which  he 
cannot  dwell  with  pleasure,  and  lop  off  the  con- 
siderations which  give  rise  to  dread;  whoever  is 
willing  to  pay  this  Epicurean  price  for  happiness 
can  have  it  just  as  soon  and  just  as  often  as  he 
pays  down  the  cash  of  a  faithful  and  consistent 
\  application  of  these  principles.  If  any  man  goes 
i  about  the  world  in  a  chronic  unhappiness,  it  is 
ninty-nine  per  cent  the  fault,  not  of  his  circum- 
stances, but  of  himself.  There  is  not  a  reader 
of  this  book  whose  circumstances  are  so  black 
that  another  person,  in  those  same  circumstances, 
would  not  find  a  way  to  be  supremely  and 
dominantly,  if  not  exclusively  and  continuously, 
happy.  There  is  not  a  reader  of  this  book  so 
rich,  so  blessed  with  family  and  friends,  so  oc- 
cupied and  diverted,  but  that  another  person  in 
those  same  circumstances  would  be  miserable 
himself,  and  a  source  of  misery  to  everybody 
;  with   whom    he   came   in   contact.      Epicurus   is 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         33 

right,  that  happiness  is  up  at  auction  all  the  time, 
and  sold  in  lots  to  suit  the  purchaser  whenever 
he  bids  high  enough.  And  the  price  is  not  | 
exorbitant :  prudence  to  plan  for  the  simple  pleas- 
ures that  can  be  had  for  the  asking;  resolution 
to  cut  off  the  pleasures  that  come  too  high  ;  deter- 
mination to  amputate  our  reflections  the  instant 
they  develop  morbid  symptoms,  and  to  take  an  1 
anti-toxine  against  fret  and  worry,  the  moment 
we  feel  the  approach  of  their  contagious  atmos- 
phere ;  concentration,  to  live  in  a  self-chosen 
present  from  which  profitless  regret  and  unprofit- 
able anxieties,  projected  from  the  past  or  borrowed 
from  the  future,  are  absolutely  banished. 

It  is  high  time  to  treat  melancholy,  depression, ,' 
gloom,   fretfulness,   unhappiness,   not    merely   as 

diseases,  but  as  the  inexcusable  follies,  the  intol-\ 

\ 
erable  vices,  the  unpardonable  sms  which  a  sane  \ 

and  wholesome   Epicureanism   pronounces  them    ' 

to  be. 

The  Epicurean  principle,  then,  forbids  us  to  go  r 

whining,  whimpering,  and  weeping  through  this  '. 

glorious  and  otherwise  cheery  world,  making  our-  i 

selves  a  burden  and  nuisance  to  our  friends ;  and 

'5i     tells  us  frankly  that  if  we  are  so  much  as  tempted 

to   such  melancholy  living,  it  is   because  we  are 

too  improvident,  too  slothful,  too   stupid   to   cast 


K. 


34  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

;  out  these  devils,  which  a   little   plain   fare,  hard 

!  work,   outdoor  exercise,   vigorous   play,   and   un- 

'  worried  rest  would  exorcise  forever.     It  bids  us 

"•'^  put  in  place  of  these  banished  sighs  and  groans 

^    and    tears,   the   laughter,   song,    and    shout  that 

Qi ;  "spin  the  great  wheel  of  earth  about"     We  may 

:  sum   it   all   up   in   the  picture   of   a  worthy  Epi- 

'  curean's  day. 

After  a  night  of  sleep  too  sound  to  harbour  an 
unpleasant  dream,  he  greets  the  hour  of  rising 
with  a  shout  and  bound,  plunges  into  the  bath, 
meets  with  gusto  the  shock  it  gives,  and  rejoices 
in  the  glow  of  exhilaration  a  vigorous  rubbing 
brings ;  greets  the  household  "  with  morning 
face  and  morning  heart,"  eager  to  share  with 
the  family  the  meal,  the  news,  the  outlook  on 
the  day,  resolved  like  Pippa  to  "  waste  no  wavelet 
of  his  twelve-hours'  treasure";  then,  whether  work 
calls  him  forth  immediately  or  not,  takes  a  few 
minutes  of  brisk  walking  and  deep  breathing  in 
the  open  air  until  he  feels  the  great  forces  of 
earth,  air,  and  sunshine  pulsing  in  his  veins ; 
then  greets  the  work  of  kitchen  or  factory,  office 
or  field,  schoolroom  or  counter,  bench  or  desk 
with  an  inward  cheer,  as  something  to  put  forth 
his  surplus  energy  upon ;  and  through  the  swift, 
precious  forenoon  hours  delights  in   the  mastery 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         3$ 

over  difficulty  his  stored-up  power  imparts ;  takes 
the  noon-day  meal  gayly  and  leisurely  with  con- 
genial people ;  through  the  early  afternoon  hours 
does  the  lighter  portion  of  the  day's  work  if  he 
must;  gets  out  for  an  hour  or  two  in  the  open 
air  if  he  may,  with  horse,  or  wheel,  or  automo- 
bile, or  boat,  or  racket,  or  golf  clubs,  or  skates, 
or  rod,  or  gun,  or  at  least  a  friend  and  two  stout 
walking  shoes  ;  comes  to  the  evening  meal  in  the 
family  circle  widened  to  include  a  few  welcome 
guests,  or  at  the  home  of  some  hospitable  host, 
in  garments  from  which  all  trace  of  stain  or  hint 
of  strain  has  been  removed,  to  share  the  best 
things  market  and  purse  afford,  served  in  such 
wise  as  to  prolong  the  opportunity  for  the  inter- 
change of  wit  and  banter,  cursory  discussion  and 
kindly  compliment ;  spends  the  evening  in  quiet 
reading  or  public  entertaiment,  games  with  his 
children  or  visiting  with  friends  ;  and  then  returns 
v\i  again  to  sleep  with  such  a  sense  of  gratitude  for 
\  the  dear  joys  of  the  day  as  sends  an  echo  of 
v(  "  All's  well "  down  through  even  the  shadowy  sub- 
stance of  his  unconscious  dreams.  Surely  there 
are  some  features  of  this  Epicurean  day  which 
we,  in  our  bustling,  restless,  overelaborated  lives, 
might  introduce  with  great  profit  to  ourselves, 
and   great  advantage   to  the   people  with  whom 


36  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

we  are  intimately  thrown.  A  series  of  such  days, 
varied  by  even  happier  holidays  and  Sundays, 
broken  once  or  twice  a  year  at  least  by  consid- 
erable vacations,  added  together,  will  make  a  life 
which  Epicurus  says  a  man  may  live  with  satis- 
faction, and  after  which  he  may  pass  away  con- 
tent 

If   there  be  no  other  life,  let  us  by  all  means 
make  the  most  of  this.     And  if,  both  here  and 
hereafter,  there  be  a  larger  life  than  that  perceiv- 
able by  sense,  —  as,  on  deeper  grounds  than  the 
Epicurean    psychology    recognises,    most    of    us 
believe  there  is,  —  this  healthy,  hearty,  wholesome 
determination  to  live  intensely  and  exclusively  in 
the  present  is  a  much  more  sincere  and  effective    ] 
way  to  develop  it  than  the  foolish  attempt  of   a     xf 
false  other-worldliness   to   anticipate   or   discount    ;  J 
the  future,  by  a  half-hearted,  far-away  affectation 
of  superiority  to  the  simple  homely  pleasures  of 
to-day. 

IV 

THE   DEFECTS   OF   EPICUREANISM 

Thus  far  we  have  pointed  out  certain  valuable 
elements  of  truth  which  Epicureanism  contains. 
Only  incidentally  have  we  encountered  certain 
deep  defects.     Epicurus's  "free   laugh"  at  those 


Si 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         37 

who  attempt  to  fulfil  their  political  duties,  his 
quiet  ignoring  of  all  interests  that  lie  outside  his 
little  circle,  or  reach  beyond  the  grave,  his  natve 
remark  about  the  intrinsic  harmlessness  of  wrong- 
doing, provided  only  the  wrong-doer  could  escape 
the  fear  of  being  caught,  must  have  made  us 
aware  that  there  are  heights  of  nobleness,  depths 
of  devotion,  lengths  of  endurance,  breadths  of 
sympathy  altogether  foreign  to  this  easy-going, 
pleasure-seeking  view  of  life.  Justice  requires  us 
to  dwell  more  explicitly  on  these  Epicurean  short- 
comings. Much  that  has  been  charged  against 
the  school  in  the  form  of  swinish  sensuality  is  the 
grossest  slander.  Still  there  are  defects  in  this 
view  of  life  which  are  both  logically  deducible 
from  its  premises,  and  practically  visible  in  the 
lives  of  its  consistent  disciples. 

The  fundamental  defect  of  Epicureanism  is  its 
false  definition  of  personality.  According  to 
Epicurus  the  person  is  merely  a  bundle  of  appe- 
tites and  passions;  and  the  gratification  of  these 
is  made  synonymous  with  the  satisfaction  of  him- 
self. [  But  gratifications  are  short ;  while  appetites 
are  long.\  The  result  is  that  which  Schopenhauer 
has  so  conclusively  pointed  out.  During  the  long 
periods  when  desire  burns  unsatisfied,  the  balance 
of  pleasure  is  against  us.     In  the  comparatively 


38  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

brief  and  rare  intervals  when  passions  are  in  pro- 
cess of  gratification,  the  balance  can  never  be  more 
than  even.  Therefore  our  account  with  the  world 
at  the  end  of  any  period,  whether  a  week  or  a  year 
or  a  lifetime,  is  bound  to  stand  as  follows :  credit, 
a  few  rare,  brief  moments  —  moments,  too,  which 
have  long  since  vanished  into  nothingness  —  when 
appetites  and  passions  were  in  process  of  satis- 
faction. Debit,  the  vast  majority  of  moments, 
amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  almost  the  total 
period  considered,  when  appetites  and  passions 
were  clamouring  for  a  satisfaction  that  was  not 
forthcoming.  The  obvious  conclusion  from  the  fre- 
quent examination  of  the  Epicurean  account-book  is 
that  which  Schopenhauer  so  triumphantly  demon- 
strates, —  pessimism.  The  sooner  we  cease  doing 
business  on  those  terms,  the  less  will  be  the  balance 
of  pain,  or  unsatisfied  desire,  against  us.  To  be 
entirely  frank,  the  devotees  of  Omar  Khayyam 
would  have  to  confess  that  it  is  this  note  of  pessi- 
mism, despair,  and  self-pity,  at  the  sorry  contrast  of 
the  vast  unattainable  and  the  petty  attained,  which 
is  the  secret  of  his  unquestionably  fascinating  lines. 
Here  the  blas6  amusement-seeker  finds  consolation 
in  the  fact  that  a  host  of  other  people  are  also 
yielding  to  the  temptation  to  bury  the  unwelcome 
consciousness  of  a  self  they  cannot  satisfy  in  wine, 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE  39 

or  any  other  momentary  sensuous  titillation  that 
will  conceal  the  sense  of  their  spiritual  failure  —  a 
failure,  however,  which  they  are  glad  to  be  assured 
is  shared  by  so  many  that  the  sense  of  it  has  been 
dignified  by  the  name  of  a  philosophy  and  sung 
by  a  poet. 

Pleasure  cannot  be  sought  directly  with  success ; 
for  pleasure  comes  indirectly  as  the  effect  of  causes 
far  higher  and  deeper  and  wider  than  any  that  are 
recognised  in  the  Epicurean  philosophy.  Pleas- 
ure comes  unsought  to  those  who  lose  themselves 
in  large  intellectual,  artistic,  social,  and  spiritual 
interests.  But  such  noble  losing  of  self  without 
thought  of  gain  is  explicitly  excluded  from  the 
consistent  Epicurean  creed. 

In  the  picture  of  the  Epicurean  life  already 
drawn,  while  domestic  and  political  life  have  been 
presupposed  as  a  background,  nothing  has  been 
said  about  the  sacrifice  which  one  is  called  upon 
to  make  in  the  support  and  defence  of  a  pure 
home  and  a  free  country.  That  was  expressly 
excluded  by  Epicurus.  Whatever  attractiveness 
there  was  in  the  picture  of  the  Epicurean  life 
previously  presented  was  largely  due  to  this  back- 
ground of  presupposition  that  this  happy  life  was 
lived  in  a  well-ordered  and  stable  family,  and  in  a 
free  and  just  municipal  and  national  life.     In  fact 


40  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

it  is  only  as  a  parasite  on  these  great  domestic, 
social,  and  political  institutions  which  it  does 
nothing  to  create  or  maintain,  and  much  to 
weaken  and  destroy,  that  Epicureanism  is  even 
a  tolerable  account  of  life.  If  we  now  paint 
our  picture  of  the  Epicurean  man  and  woman 
with  this  background  of  domestic  and  civic  life 
withdrawn,  the  ugliness  and  meanness  of  this 
parasitic  Epicureanism  will  stare  us  in  the  face; 
and  while  we  ought  not  to  forget  the  valuable 
lessons  it  has  to  teach  us,  we  shall  shrink  from 
the  completed  picture  as  a  thing  of  deformity  and 
degradation. 

Who  then  is  the  consistent  Epicurean  man  ? 
He  is  the  club  man,  who  lives  in  easy  luxury 
and  fares  sumptuously  every  day.  Everything 
is  done  for  him.  Servants  wait  on  him.  He 
serves  nobody,  and  is  responsible  for  no  one's 
welfare.  He  has  a  congenial  set  of  cronies, 
loosely  attached  to  be  sure ;  and  constantly 
changing,  as  matrimony,  financial  reverses,  busi- 
ness engagements,  professional  responsibilities  call 
one  or  another  of  his  circle  away  to  a  more  strenu- 
ous life.  He  is  a  good  fellow,  genial,  free-handed 
with  his  set,  indifferent  to  all  who  are  outside.  He 
generally  hires  some  woman  to  serve  for  a  few 
months  as  the  instrument  of  his  passions;   only 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         4 1 

to  cast  her  off  to  be  hired  by  another  and  another 
until  in  due  time  she  dies,  he  cares  not  when  or 
how. 

As  business  men  these  Epicureans  are  apt  to 
be  easy-going,  and  therefore  failures.  As  debtors, 
they  are  the  hardest  people  in  the  world  from  whom 
to  collect  a  bill.  As  creditors  or  landlords  they 
are  the  most  merciless  in  their  exactions.  Their 
devotion  to  the  state  is  generally  confined  to 
betting  on  the  elections ;  the  returns  of  which 
they  watch  with  the  same  interest  as  the  results 
of  a  horse-race.  Their  religion  is  confined  to 
poking  fun  at  the  people  who  are  foolish  enough 
to  be  going  to  church  while  they  are  at  their 
Sunday  morning  breakfast. 

/^Q  all  know  these  Epicureans  ;  we  do  business 
with  them  ;  we  meet  them  socially ;  we  treat  them 
decently ;  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  underneath 
the  smooth  exterior  we  all  detect  their  selfish 
heartlessness.  They  have  taken  a  doctrine,  which, 
as  applied  to  the  good  things  which  are  made  to 
minister  to  our  appetites  is  sound  and  true,  and 
have  perverted  it  into  a  moral  monstrosity  by 
daring  to  treat  human  hearts  and  social  institu- 
tions as  mere  things,  mere  instruments  of  their 
selfish  pleasures. 

Epicurean   women,  likewise,  abound    in    every 


42  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

wealthy  community.  They  spend  the  winter  in 
Florida,  New  York,  or  Washington ;  dividing  the 
rest  of  the  year  between  the  sea-shore,  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  lakes,  with  occasional  visits  to  what 
they  call  their  homes.  They  must  have  the  best 
of  everything,  and  assume  no  responsibility  beyond 
running  up  bills  for  their  husbands  to  pay,  or 
to  remain  unpaid.  Their  special  paradise  is  for- 
eign travel,  and  no  ^pension  or  hotel  along  the 
beaten  highways  of  Europe  is  without  its  quota  of 
these  precious  daughters  of  Epicurus.  They  flit 
hither  and  thither  where  least  ennui  and  most 
diversion  allures.  /Two  or  three  years  of  this 
irresponsible  existence  is  sufficient  to  disqualify 
them  for  usefulness  either  in  Europe  or  Amer- 
ica, either  here  or  hereafter.^  When  they  return, 
if  they  ever  do,  to  their  native  town  or  city, 
the  drudgery  of  housekeeping  has  become  in- 
tolerable, the  responsibilities  of  social  life  un- 
endurable, and  their  poor  husbands  are  glad 
enough  when  the  restless  fit  seizes  them  again 
and  they  can  be  packed  off  to  Egypt,  or  Russia, 
or  whatever  remote  corner  of  the  earth  remains 
for  their  idle  hands  and  restless  feet,  their  empty 
minds  and  hollow  hearts,  to  invade  with  their 
unearned  gold. 

There    is    no    guarantee   that    the    Epicurean 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE        43 

will  be  the  chaste  husband  of  one  wife,  or 
a  faithful  mother,  or  a  good  provider  for  the 
family,  or  a  devoted  citizen  of  the  republic,  or 
a  strenuous  servant  of  art  or  science,  or  a  heroic 
martyr  in  the  cause  of  progress  and  reform.  If 
all  men  were  Epicureans,  the  world  would  speedily 
retrograde  into  the  barbarism  and  animalism 
whence  it  has  slowly  and  painfully  emerged. 
The  great  interests  of  the  family,  the  state,  so- 
ciety, and  civilisation  are  not  accurately  reflected 
in  the  feelings  of  the  individual;  and  if  the  indi- 
vidual has  no  guide  but  feeUng,  he  will  prove  a 
traitor  to  such  of  these  higher  interests  as  may 
have  the  misfortune  to  be  intrusted  to  his  pleasure- 
loving,  self-indulgent,  unheroic  hands. 

There  are  hard  things  to  do  and  to  endure ;  and 
if  we  are  to  meet  them  bravely,  we  shall  have  to 
call  the  Stoic  to  our  aid.  There  are  sordid  and 
trivial  things  to  put  up  with,  or  to  rise  above,  and 
there  we  may  need  at  times  the  Platonist  and  the 
mystic  to  show  us  the  eternal  reality  underneath 
the  temporal  appearance.  There  are  problems 
of  conduct  to  be  solved ;  conflicting  claims  to  be 
adjusted;  and  for  this  the  Aristotelian  sense 
of  proportion  must  be  developed  in  our  souls. 
Finally  there  are  other  persons  to  be  considered, 
and  one  great  Personal  Spirit  living  and  working 


44  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

in  the  world;  and  for  our  proper  attitude  toward 
these  persons,  human  and  divine,  we  must  look 
to  the  Christian  principle.  To  meet  these  higher 
relationships  with  no  better  equipment  than  Epicu- 
Teanism  offers,  would  be  as  foolish  as  to  try  to  run 
barefoot  across  a  continent,  or  swim  naked  across 
the  sea.  Naked,  barefoot  Epicureanism  has  its 
place  on  the  sandy  beaches  and  in  the  sheltered 
coves  of  life;  but  has  no  business  on  the  mountain 
tops  or  in  the  depths  of  human  experience. 

It  will  not  make  a  man  an  efficient  workman,  or 
a  thorough  scholar,  or  a  brave  soldier,  or  a  public- 
spirited  citizen.  It  spoils  completely  every  woman 
whom  it  gets  hold  of,  unless  at  the  same  time  she 
has  firm  hold  on  something  better;  unless  she 
has  a  husband  and  children  whom  she  loves,  or 
work  in  which  she  delights  for  its  own  sake,  or 
friends  and  interests  dearer  than  life  itself.  Epi- 
cureanism will  not  lift  either  man  or  woman  far 
toward  heaven,  or  save  them  in  the  hour  when  the 
pains  of  hell  get  hold  of  them.  No  home  can  be 
reared  on  it.  The  divorce  court  is  the  logical 
outcome  of  every  marriage  between  a  man  and  a 
woman  who  are  both  Epicureans.  For  it  is  the 
very  essence  of  Epicureanism  to  treat  others  as 
means ;  while  no  marriage  is  tolerable  unless  at  least 
one  of  the  two  parties  is  large  and  unselfish  enough 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT    OF   PLEASURE         4$ 

to  treat  the  other  as  an  end.  No  Epicurean  state  or 
city  could  endure  longer  than  it  would  take  for  the 
men  who  are  in  politics  for  their  pockets  to  plunder 
the  people  who  are  out  of  politics  for  the  same 
reason.  An  Epicurean  heaven,  a  place  where 
/  eternally  each  should  get  his  fill  of  pleasure  at  the 
'  expense  of  everybody  else,  would  be  insufferably 
insipid,  incomparably  unendurable.  It  is  fortu- 
nate for  the  fame  of  Epicurus  and  the  per- 
manence of  his  philosophy  that  he  evaded  the 
necessity  of  thinking  out  the  conditions  of  immortal 
blessedness  by  his  specious  dilemma  in  which  he 
thought  to  prove  that  death  ends  all.  As  a  tem- 
porary parasite  upon  a  political  and  moral  order 
already  established.  Epicureanism  might  thrive  and 
flourish;  but  as  a  principle  on  which  to  rest  a  decent 
society  here  or  a  hope  of  heaven  hereafter,  Epicu- 
reanism is  utterly  lacking.  If  there  were  nothing 
better  than  Epicureanism  in  store  for  us  through 
the  long  eternities,  we  all  might  well  pray  to  be 
excused,  as  Epicurus  happily  believed  we  should 
be.  For  any  ultimate  delight  in  life  must  be  rooted 
in  something  deeper  than  self-centred  pleasure: 
it  must  love  persons  and  seek  ends  for  their 
T^  own  sake ;  and  find  its  joy,  not  in  the  satisfaction 
J:/  of  the  man  as  he  is,  but  in  the  development  of  that 
^  which  his  thought  and  love  enable  him  to  become. 


46  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

V 

AN   EXAMPLE   OF   EPICUREAN    CHARACTER 

The  clearest  example  of  the  shortcomings  of 
Epicureanism  is  the  character  of  Tito  Melema 
in  George  Eliot's  "  Romola."  Pleasure  and  the 
avoidance  of  pain  are  this  young  Greek's  only 
principles.  He  is  "of  so  easy  a  conscience  that 
he  would  make  a  stepping-stone  of  his  father's 
corpse."  "  He  has  a  lithe  sleekness  about  him 
that  seems  marvellously  fitted  for  slipping  into  any 
nest  he  fixes  his  mind  on."  "  He  had  an  uncon- 
querable aversion  to  anything  unpleasant,  even  when 
an  object  very  much  loved  and  admired  was  on  the 
other  side  of  it."  According  to  his  thinking  "  any 
maxims  that  required  a  man  to  fling  away  the  good 
that  was  needed  to  make  existence  sweet,  were  only 
the  lining  of  human  selfishness  turned  outward; 
they  were  made  by  men  who  wanted  others  to 
sacrifice  themselves  for  their  sake."  "He  would 
rather  that  Baldassarre  should  not  suffer;  he 
liked  no  one  to  suffer;  but  could  any  philosophy 
prove  to  him  that  he  was  bound  to  care  for  an- 
other's suffering  more  than  for  his  own  ?  To  do 
so,  he  must  have  loved  Baldassarre  devotedly,  and 
he  did  not  love   him :   was  that   his   own   fault  ? 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         47 

Gratitude!    seen  closely,  it  made  no  valid   claim; 
his  father's  life  would  have  been  dreary  without 
him;  are  we  convicted  of  a  debt  to  men  for  the 
pleasure  they  give  themselves  ? "     "  He  had  simply 
chosen  to  make  life  easy  to  himself  —  to  carry  his 
human  lot  if  possible  in  such  a  way  that  it  should 
pinch  him  nowhere  ;  but  the  choice  had  at  various 
times  landed  him  in  unexpected  positions."     "  Tito 
could  not  arrange  life  at  all  to  his  mind  without 
a  considerable  sum  of  money,  and  that  problem  of 
arranging  life  to  his  mind  had  been  the  source  of 
all  his  misdoing."     "  He  would  have  been  equal  to 
any  sacrifice  that  was  not  unpleasant."     "  Of  other 
goods  than  pleasure  he  can  form  no  conception." 
As  Romola  says  in  her  reproaches :  "  You  talk  of 
f  substantial  good,  Tito !     Are  faithfulness,  and  love, 
('  and  sweet  grateful  memories  no  good  ?     Is  it  no 
I  good  that  we  should  keep  our  silent  promises  on 
\  which  others  build  because  they  believe  in  our  love 
]  and  truth .?     Is  it  no  good  that  a  just  life  should  be 
^justly  honoured?     Or,  is   it  good  that  we  should 
^  harden  our  hearts  against  all  the  wants  and  hopes 
<0 1  of  those  who  have  depended  on  us  ?    What  good 
1  can  belong  to  men  who  have  such  souls  ?     To  talk 
i  cleverly,  perhaps,  and  find  soft  couches  for  them- 
selves, and  live  and  die  with  their  base  selves  as 
their  best  companions." 


48  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

This  pleasure-loving  Tito  Melema,  "when  he 
was  only  seven  years  old,  Baldassarre  had  rescued 
from  blows,  had  taken  to  a  home  that  seemed 
like  opened  paradise,  where  there  was  sweet  food 
and  soothing  caresses,  all  had  on  Baldassarre's 
knee;  and  from  that  time  till  the  hour  they  had 
parted,  Tito  had  been  the  one  centre  of  Baldas- 
sarre's fatherly  cares."  Instead  of  finding  and 
rescuing  this  man  who,  long  years  ago,  had  res- 
cued Tito  when  a  little  boy  from  a  life  of  beggary, 
filth,  and  cruel  wrong,  had  reared  him  tenderly 
and  been  to  him  as  a  father,  Tito  sold  the  jewels 
which  belonged  to  his  father  and  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  ransom  him  from  slavery,  and 
finally,  when  found  by  Baldassarre  in  Florence, 
denied  him  and  pronounced  him  a  madman.  He 
betrayed  an  innocent,  trusting  young  girl  into  a 
mock  marriage,  at  the  same  time  ruining  her  and 
proving  false  to  his  lawful  wife.  He  sold  the 
library  which  it  was  Romola's  father's  dying  wish 
to  have  kept  in  Florence  as  a  distinct  memorial 
to  his  life  and  work.  He  entered  into  selfish  in- 
trigues in  the  politics  of  the  city,  ready  to  betray 
his  associates  and  friends  whenever  his  own 
safety  required  it. 

//  What  wonder  that  Romola  came  to  have  "  her 
/  new  scorn  of  that  thing  called   pleasure   which 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         49 

made  men  base  —  that  dexterous  contrivance  for 
selfish  ease,  that  shrinking  from  endurance  and 
strain,  when  others  were  bowing  beneath  burdens 
too  heavy  for  them,  which  now  made  one  image 
with  her  husband."  In  her  own  distress  she 
learns  from  Savonarola  that  there  is  a  higher  law 
than  individual  pleasure.  "  She  felt  that  the 
sanctity  attached  to  all  close  relations,  and  there- 
fore preeminently  to  the  closest,  was  but  the  ex- 
pression in  outward  law,  of  that  result  toward 
which  all  human  goodness  and  nobleness  must 
spontaneously  tend;  that  the  light  abandonment 
of  ties,  whether  inherited  or  voluntary,  because 
they  had  ceased  to  be  pleasant,  was  the  uprooting 
of  social  and  personal  virtue.  What  else  had 
Tito's  crime  toward  Baldassarre  been  but  that 
abandonment  working  itself  out  to  the  most  hid- 
eous extreme  of  falsity  and  ingratitude  ?  To  her, 
as  to  him,  there  had  come  one  of  those  moments 
in  life  when  the  soul  must  dare  to  act  on  its  own 
warrant,  not  only  without  external  law  to  appeal 
to,  but  in  the  face  of  a  law  which  is  not  unarmed 
with  Divine  lightnings  —  lightnings  that  may  yet 
fall  if  the  warrant  has  been  false."  The  whole 
teaching  of  the  book  is  summed  up  in  the  Epi- 
logue. In  the  conversation  between  Romola  and 
Tito's  illegitimate  son  Lillo,  Lillo  says,  "  I  should 


50  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

like  to  be  something  that  would  make  me  a  great 
man,  and  very  happy  besides  —  something  that 
would  not  hinder  me  from  having  a  good  deal  of 
pleasure." 

("  That  is  not  easy,  my  Lillo.     It  is  only  a  poor 
sort  of  happiness  that  could  ever  come  by  caring 
very  much  about  our  own  narrow  pleasures.     We 
can   only   have   the    highest   happiness,    such   as 
/  goes   along  with  being  a  great  man,  by  having 
wide  thoughts,  and  much  feeling  for  the  rest  of 
the  world  as  well  as   ourselves;  and  this  sort  of 
.   happiness  often  brings  so  much  pain  with  it,  that 
we  can  only  tell  it  from  pain  by  its  being  what 
we  would  choose  before  everything  else,  because 
our  souls   see  it  is   good.     There  are   so  many 
kI  things  wrong  and  difficult  in  the  world,  that  no 
\    man  can  be  great  —  he  can  hardly  keep  himself 
^      from  wickedness  —  unless   he   gives  up   thinking 
i  much  about  pleasure  or  rewards,  and  gets  strength 
I  to  endure  what  is  hard  and  painful.     My  father 
had  the  greatness  that  belongs  to  integrity ;  he 
chose  poverty  and  obscurity  rather  than  falsehood. 
And  there  was  Fra  Girolamo  —  you  know  why  I 
keep  to-morrow   sacred;    he   had    the    greatness 
which  belongs  to  a  life  spent  in  struggling  against 
powerful  wrong,  and  in  trying  to  raise  men  to  the 
highest  deeds  they  are  capable  of.     And  so,  my 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF    PLEASURE         5 1 

Lillo,  if  you  mean  to  act  nobly  and  seek  to  know 
the  best  things  God  has  put  within  reach  of  men, 
you  must  learn  to  iix  your  mind  on  that  end,  and 
not  on  what  will  happen  to  you  because  of  it. 
And  remember,  if  you  were  to  choose  something 
lower,  and  make  it  the  rule  of  your  life  to  seek 
your  own  pleasure,  and  escape  from  what  is  disa- 
greeable, calamity  might  come  just  the  same;  and 
it  would  be  calamity  falling  on  a  base  mind,  which 
is  the  one  form  of  sorrow  that  has  no  balm  in  it, 
and  that  may  well  make  a  man  say,  *  It  would  have 
been  better  for  me  if  I  had  never  been  bom.' " 

The  trouble  with  Epicureanism  is  its  assump- 
tion that  the  self  is  a  bundle  of  natural  appe- 
tites and  passions,  and  that  the  end  of  life  is 
their  gratification.  Experience  shows,  as  in  the 
case  of  Tito,  that  such  a  policy  consistently  pur- 
sued, brings  not  pleasure  but  pain  —  pain  first 
of  all  to  others,  and  then  pain  to  the  individual 
through  their  contempt,  indignation,  and  ven- 
geance. The  truest  pleasure  must  come  through 
the  development  within  one  of  generous  emotions, 
kind  sympathies,  and  large  social  interests.  The 
man  must  be  made  over  before  the  pleasures  of 
the  new  man  can  be  rightly  sought  and  success- 
fully found.  This  making  over  of  man  is  no  con- 
sistent part  of  the  logical  Epicurean  programme. 


52  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

and  consequently  pure  Epicureanism  is  sure  to  land 
one  in  the  narrowness,  selfishness,  and  heartless- 
ness  of  a  Tito  Melema,  and  to  bring  upon  one 
essentially  the  same  condemnation  and  disaster. 

Still,  not  in   criticism   or  unkindness  would  we 
take    leave   of   the    serene    and  genial  Epicurus. 
We  may  frankly  recognise  his  fundamental  limita- 
tions, and  yet  gratefully  accept  the  good  counsel 
he  has  to  give.    Parasite  as  it  is, —  a  thing  that  can 
only  live  by  sucking  its  life  out  of  ideals  and  prin- 
ciples  higher   and   hardier   than   itself,  it   is   yet 
a  graceful    and   ornamental   parasite,   which  will 
beautify   and    shield    the    hard    outlines    of    our 
more    strenuous    principles.      There    are    dreary 
wastes  in  all  our   lives,  into  which  we  can  profit- 
ably turn    those   streams   of   simple  pleasure   he 
commends.       There   are  points   of   undue   strain 
and  tension  where  Epicurean  prudence  would  bid 
us  forego    the    slight   fancied   gain   to   save   the 
ruinous  expense  to   health   and  happiness.      Let 
;  us  fill  up  these  gaps  with   hearty  indulgence  of 
:  healthy  appetite,   with   vigorous  exercise   of  dor- 
;  mant  powers,  with  the  eager  joys  of  new-learned 
oT  recreations.      Let   us   tone  down  the   strain   and 
..^  tension  of  our  anxious,  worried,  worn,  and  weary 
^  lives  by  the  rigid  eUmination  of  the  superfluous, 
the  strict  concentration  on  the  perpetual  present, 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         53 

the  resolute  banishment  from  it  of  all  past  or 
future  springs  of  depression  and  discouragement. 
Before  we  are  through  we  shall  see  far  nobler 
ideals  than  this ;  but  we  must  not  despise  the  day 
of  small  things.  Though  the  lowest  and  least  of 
them  all,  the  Epicurean  is  one  of  the  historical 
ideals  of  Ufe.  It  has  its  claims  which  none  of 
us  may  with  impunity  ignore.  To  serve  him 
faithfully  in  the  lower  spheres  of  life  is  a  whole- 
some preparation  for  the  intelligent  and  reason- 
able service  of  Stoic,  Platonic,  Aristotelian,  and 
Christian  ideals  which  rule  the  higher  realms. 
He  who  is  false  to  the  humble,  homely  de- 
mands of  Epicurus  can  never  be  quite  at  his 
best  in  the  grander  service  of  Zeno  and  Plato, 
Aristotle  and  Jesus  Christ. 

VI 

THE   CONFESSIONS   OF   AN  EPICUREAN   HERETIC 

A  heretic  is  a  man  who,  while  professing  to 
hold  the  tenets  of  the  sect  to  which  he  adheres, 
and  sincerely  believing  that  he  is  in  substantial 
agreement  with  his  more  orthodox  brethren,  yet 
in  his  desire  to  be  honest  and  reasonable,  so 
modifies  these  tenets  as  to  empty  them  of  all 
that   is    distinctive    of  the   sect  in  question,  and 


54  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

thus  unintentionally  gives  aid  and  comfort  to  its 
enemies.  Every  vigorous  and  vital  school  of 
thought  soon  or  late  develops  this  species  of 
enfant  terrible.  Like  the  Christian  church,  the 
Epicurean  school  has  been  blessed  with  numer- 
ous progeny  of  this  disturbing  sort.  The  one 
among  them  all  who  most  stoutly  professes  the 
fundamental  principles  of  Epicureanism,  and  then 
proceeds  to  admit  pretty  much  everything  its 
opponents  advance  against  it,  is  John  Stuart  Mill. 
His  "  Utilitarianism"  is  a  fort  manned  with  the  most 
approved  idealistic  guns,  yet  with  the  Epicurean 
flag  floating  bravely  over  the  whole.  He  "holds 
that  actions  are  right  in  proportion  as  they  tend 
to  promote  happiness,  wrong  as  they  tend  to 
produce  the  reverse  of  happiness.  By  happiness 
is  intended  pleasure  and  the  absence  of  pain ;  by 
unhappiness,  pain  and  the  privation  of  pleasure. 
Pleasure  and  freedom  from  pain  are  the  only 
things  desirable  as  ends ;  and  all  desirable  things 
are  desirable  either  for  the  pleasure  inherent  in 
themselves,  or  as  means  to  the  promotion  of 
pleasure  and  the  prevention  of  pain."  A  more 
square  and  uncompromising  statement  of  Epicu- 
reanism than  this  it  would  be  impossible  to 
make. 

Having  thus   squarely  identified  himself  with 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         55 

the  Epicurean  school,  Mr.  Mill  proceeds  to  add 
to  this  doctrine  in  turn  the  doctrines  of  each  one 
of  the  four  schools  which  we  are  to  consider 
later.  First  he  introduces  a  distinction  in  the 
kind  of  pleasure,  "  assigning  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  intellect,  of  the  feeHngs  and  imagination,  and 
of  the  moral  sentiments,  a  much  higher  value  as 
pleasures  than  to  those  of  mere  sensation." 
When  asked  what  he  means  by  difference  of 
quality  in  pleasures,  or  what  makes  one  pleasure 
more  valuable  than  another,  merely  as  a  pleasure, 
except  its  being  greater  in  amount,  although  he 
tells  us  there  is  but  one  possible  answer,  he 
gives  us  two  or  three.  First  he  appeals  to  the 
verdict  of  competent  judges.  "  Of  two  pleasures, 
if  there  be  one  to  which  all  or  almost  all  who 
have  experience  of  both  give  a  decided  pref- 
erence, irrespective  of  any  feeling  of  moral 
obligation  to  prefer  it,  that  is  the  more  desir- 
able pleasure.  If  one  of  the  two  is,  by  those 
who  are  competently  acquainted  with  both,  placed 
so  far  above  the  other  that  they  prefer  it,  even 
though  knowing  it  to  be  attended  with  a  greater 
amount  of  discontent,  and  would  not  resign  it 
for  any  quantity  of  the  other  pleasure  which 
their  nature  is  capable  of,  we  are  justified  in 
ascribing   to  the   preferred  enjoyment    a    superi- 


56  PROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

ority  in   quality,  so   far  outweighing  quantity  as 
to  render  it,  in  comparison,  of  small  account." 

This  appeal  to  competent  judges,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  authority,  involves  no  philosophical 
principle  at  all  unless  we  may  call  the  doctrine 
of  papal  infallibility,  to  which  this  appeal  of 
Mill  is  essentially  akin,  a  principle.  If  these 
judges  are  competent,  there  must  be  a  reason 
for  the  preference  they  give.  In  the  next  para- 
graph Mill  tells  us  what  that  principle  is;  but 
in  doing  so  introduces  the  principle  of  the  sub- 
ordination of  lower  to  higher  faculties,  which  we 
shall  see  later  is  the  distinguishing  principle  of 
Plato.  On  this  point  Mill  is  as  clear  as  Plato 
himself.  "  Now  it  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that 
those  who  are  equally  acquainted  with,  and 
equally  capable  of  appreciating  and  enjoying 
both,  do  give  a  most  marked  preference  to  the 
manner  of  existence  which  employs  their  higher 
faculties.  Few  human  creatures  would  consent 
to  be  changed  into  any  of  the  lower  animals, 
for  a  promise  of  the  fullest  allowance  of  a 
beast's  pleasures;  no  intelligent  human  being 
would  consent  to  be  a  fool,  no  instructed  person 
would  be  an  ignoramus,  no  person  of  feeling 
and  conscience  would  be  selfish  and  base,  even 
though  they  should  be   persuaded   that  the  fool, 


^ 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         57 

the  dunce,  or  the  rascal  is  better  satisfied  with 
his  lot  than  they  are  with  theirs.  They  would 
not  resign  what  they  possess  more  than  he, 
for  the  most  complete  satisfaction  of  all  the 
desires  which  they  have  in  common  with  him. 
If  they  ever  fancy  they  would,  it  is  only  in  cases 
of  unhappiness  so  extreme,  that  to  escape  from 
it  they  would  exchange  their  lot  for  almost  any 
other,  however  undesirable  in  their  own  eyes. 
A  being  of  higher  faculties  requires  more  to 
make  him  happy,  is  capable  probably  of  more 
acute  suffering,  and  is  certainly  accessible  to  it  \  >5 
at  more  points,  than  one  of  an  inferior  type;  /  ^ 
but  in  spite  of  these  liabilities,  he  can  never 
really  wish  to  sink  into  what  he  feels  to  be  a 
lower  grade  of  existence."  This  appeal  to 
quality  rather  than  quantity  of  pleasure  puts 
Mill,  in  spite  of  himself,  squarely  on  Platonic 
ground  and  abandons  consistent  Epicureanism. 
An  illustration  will  make  this  clear.  A  man  f 
professes  that  money  is  his  supreme  end,  the 
only  thing  he  cares  for  in  the  world ;  he  tells 
us  that  whatever  he  does  is  done  for  money,  and 
whenever  he  refrains  from  doing  anything  it  is 
to  avoid  losing  money.  So  far  he  puts  his  con- 
duct on  a  consistently  mercenary  basis.  Suppose, 
however,  that  in   the   next   sentence   he  tells   us 


58  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

that  he  prizes  certain  kinds  of  money.  If  we 
ask  him  what  is  the  basis  of  the  distinction,  he 
replies  that  he  prizes  money  honestly  earned  and 
despises  money  dishonestly  acquired.  Should  we 
not  at  once  recognise,  that  in  spite  of  his  origi- 
nal declaration,  he  is  not  the  consistently  mer- 
cenary being  he  professed  himself  to  he?  The 
fact  that  he  prefers  honest  to  dishonest  money 
/shows  that  honesty,  not  money,  is  his  real  prin- 
if  ciple;  and,  in  spite  of  his  original  profession,  this 
distinction  lifts  him  out  of  the  class  of  merce- 
nary money  lovers  into  the  class  of  men  whose 
real  principle  is  not  money  but  honesty.  Pre- 
cisely so  Mill's  confession  that  he  cares  for  the 
height  and  dignity  of  the  faculties  employed 
rather  than  the  quantity  of  pleasure  gained  lifts 
him  out  of  the  Epicurean  school  to  which  he 
professes  adherence  and  makes  him  an  idealist. 
When  asked  for  an  explanation  of  his  pref- 
erence of  higher  to  lower.  Mill  at  once  shifts  to 
Stoic  ground  in  the  following  sentences:  "We 
may  give  what  explanation  we  please  of  this 
unwillingness;  we  may  attribute  it  to  pride,  a 
name  which  is  given  indiscriminately  to  some  of 
the  most  and  to  some  of  the  least  estimable  feel- 
ings of  which  mankind  are  capable  ;  we  may  refer 
it  to  the  love  of  liberty  and  personal  independence, 


THE   EPICUREAN    PURSUIT   OF    PLEASURE         59 

an  appeal  to  which  was  with  the  Stoics  one  of  the 
most  effective  means  for  the  inculcation  of  it ;  to 
the  love  of  power,  or  to  the  love  of  excitement, 
both  of  which  do  really  enter  into  and  contribute 
to  it ;  but  its  most  appropriate  appellation  is  a 
sense  of  dignity,  which  all  human  beings  possess 
in  one  form  or  another,  and  in  some,  though  by 
no  means  in  exact,  proportion  to  their  highest 
faculties,  and  which  is  so  essential  a  part  of  the 
happiness  of  those  in  whom  it  is  strong,  that 
nothing  which  conflicts  with  it  could  be,  otherwise 
than  momentarily,  an  object  of  desire  to  them. 
Whoever  supposes  that  this  preference  takes 
place  at  a  sacrifice  of  happiness  —  that  the  supe- 
rior being,  in  anything  like  equal  circumstances, 
is  not  happier  than  the  inferior  —  confounds  the 
two  very  different  ideas  of  happiness  and  content. 
It  is  indisputable  that  the  being  whose  capacities 
of  enjoyment  are  low  has  the  greatest  chance  of 
having  them  fully  satisfied  ;  and  a  highly  endowed 
being  will  always  feel  that  any  happiness  which 
we  can  look  for,  as  the  world  is  constituted,  is  im- 
perfect. But  he  can  learn  to  bear  its  imperfec- 
tions if  they  are  at  all  bearable ;  and  they  will  not 
make  him  envy  the  being  who  is  indeed  uncon- 
scious of  the  imperfections,  but  only  because  he 
feels  not   at  all  the   good  which   those  imperfec- 


Vi 

c 


60  FROM    EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

tions  qualify.  It  is  better  to  be  a  human  being 
dissatisfied  than  a  pig  satisfied ;  better  to  be  Soc- 
rates dissatisfied  than  a  fool  satisfied.  And  if 
the  fool,  or  the  pig,  is  of  a  different  opinion,  it  is 
^j  because  they  only  know  their  own  side  of  the 
question.  The  other  party  to  the  comparison 
knows  both  sides." 

When  pressed  for  a  sanction  of  motive  Mill  ap- 
peals to  the  Aristotelian  principle  that  the  indi- 
vidual can  only  realise  his  conception  of  himself 
through  union  with  his  fellows  in  society:  to 
the  social  nature  of  man  and  his  inability  to 
find  himself  in  any  smaller  sphere,  or  through 
devotion  to  any  lesser  end.  "This  firm  founda- 
tion is  that  of  the  social  feelings  of  mankind; 
the  desire  to  be  in  unity  with  our  fellow-creatures, 
which  is  already  a  powerful  principle  in  human 
nature,  and  happily  one  of  those  which  tend  to 
become  stronger,  even  without  express  inculca- 
tion, from  the  influences  of  advancing  civilisation. 
The  social  state  is  at  once  so  natural,  so  necessary, 
and  so  habitual  to  man,  that,  except  in  some  un- 
usual circumstances  or  by  an  effort  of  voluntary 
abstraction,  he  never  conceives  himself  otherwise 
than  as  a  member  of  a  body ;  and  this  associa- 
tion is  riveted  more  and  more,  as  mankind  are 
farther  removed    from    the    state   of    savage   in- 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT    OF    PLEASURE         6 1 

dependence.  Any  condition,  therefore,  which 
is  essential  to  a  state  of  society,  becomes  more 
and  more  an  inseparable  part  of  every  person's 
conception  of  the  state  of  things  which  he  is 
born  into,  and  which  is  the  destiny  of  a  human 
being.  In  this  way  people  grow  up  unable 
to  conceive  as  possible  to  them  a  state  of  total 
disregard  of  other  people's  interests.  They  are 
under  a  necessity  of  conceiving  themselves  as  at 
least  abstaining  from  all  the  grosser  injuries,  and 
(if  only  for  their  own  protection)  living  in  a  state 
of  constant  protest  against  them.  They  are  also 
familiar  with  the  fact  of  cooperating  with  others, 
and  proposing  to  themselves  a  collective,  not  an 
individual,  interest,  as  the  aim  (at  least  for  the 
time  being)  of  their  actions.  So  long  as  they  are 
cooperating,  their  ends  are  identified  with  those 
of  others;  there  is  at  least  a  temporary  feeling 
that  the  interests  of  others  are  their  own  interests. 
Not  only  does  all  strengthening  of  social  ties,  and 
all  healthy  growth  of  society,  give  to  each  indi- 
vidual a  stronger  personal  interest  in  practically 
consulting  the  welfare  of  others  ;  it  also  leads  him 
to  identify  his  feelings  more  and  more  with  their 
good,  or  at  least  with  an  ever  greater  degree 
of  practical  consideration  for  it.  He  comes,  as 
though  instinctively,  to  be  conscious  of  himself  as 


62  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

a  being  who  of  course  pays  regard  to  others. 
The  good  of  others  becomes  to  him  a  thing  natu- 
rally and  necessarily  to  be  attended  to.  This 
mode  of  conceiving  ourselves  and  human  life,  as 
civilisation  goes  on,  is  felt  to  be  more  and  more 
natural.  Every  step  in  political  improvement 
renders  it  more  so  by  removing  the  sources  of 
opposition  of  interest,  and  levelling  those  inequali- 
ties of  legal  privilege  between  individuals  or 
classes,  owing  to  which  there  are  large  portions 
of  mankind  whose  happiness  it  is  still  practicable 
to  disregard.  In  an  improving  state  of  the  human 
mind,  the  influences  are  constantly  on  the  in- 
crease, which  tend  to  generate  in  each  individual 
a  feeling  of  unity  with  all  the  rest ;  which  feeling, 
if  perfect,  would  make  him  never  think  of,  or  de- 
sire, any  beneficial  condition  for  himself,  in  the 
benefits  of  which  they  are  not  included.  The 
deeply  rooted  conception  which  every  individual 
even  now  has  of  himself  as  a  social  being  tends  to 
make  him  feel  it  one  of  his  natural  wants  that  there 
^  should  be  harmony  between  his  feelings  and  aims 
a\  and  those  of  his  fellow-creatures.  It  does  not 
^  present  itself  to  their  minds  as  a  superstition  of 
education,  or  a  law  despotically  imposed  by  the 
power  of  society,  but  as  an  attribute  which  it 
would  not  be  well  for  them  to  be  without," 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF   PLEASURE         63 

Lastly  Mill  introduces  the  Christian  ideal.  "  As 
between  his  own  happiness  and  that  of  others, 
utilitarianism  requires  him  to  be  as  strictly  impar- 
tial as  a  disinterested  and  benevolent  spectator. 
In  the  golden  rule  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  we  read 
the  complete  spirit  of  the  ethics  of  utility.  To  do 
as  one  would  be  done  by,  and  to  love  one's  neigh- 
bour as  one's  self,  constitute  the  ideal  perfection  of 
utilitarian  morality."  In  his  attempt  to  prove  the 
Christian  obUgation  on  an  Epicurean  basis  the  incon- 
sistency between  his  Epicurean  principle  and  his 
Christian  preaching  and  practice  becomes  evident. 
Master  of  logic  as  Mill  was,  an  author  of  a  stand- 
ard text-book  on  the  subject,  yet  so  desperate  was 
the  plight  in  which  his  attempt  to  stretch  Epicu- 
reanism to  Christian  dimensions  placed  him,  that 
he  was  compelled  to  resort  to  the  following  fallacy 
of  composition,  the  fallaciousness  of  which  every 
student  of  logic  recognises  at  a  glance.  "  Happi- 
ness is  a  good ;  each  person's  happiness  is  a  good  to 
that  person,  and  the  general  happiness,  therefore, 
a  good  to  the  aggregate  of  all  persons."  As  Car- 
lyle  has  pointed  out,  this  is  equivalent  to  saying, 
since  each  pig  wants  all  the  swill  in  the  trough  for 
itself,  a  litter  of  pigs  in  the  aggregate  will  desire 
each  member  of  the  litter  to  have  its  share  of  the 
whole,  —  a  fallacy  which  a  single  experience  in  feed- 


64         FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

ing  pigs  will  sufficiently  refute.  It  requires  some- 
thing deeper  and  higher  than  Epicurean  principles 
to  lift  men  to  a  plane  where  Christian  altruism  is 
the  natural  and  inevitable  conduct  which  Mill 
rightly  says  it  ought  to  be. 

These  confessions  of  an  Epicurean  heretic, 
wrung  from  a  man  who  had  been  rigidly  trained  by 
a  stern  father  in  Epicurean  principles,  yet  whose 
surpassing  candour  compelled  him  to  make  these 
admissions,  so  fatal  to  the  system,  so  ennobling  to 
the  man  and  to  the  doctrine  he  proclaimed,  serve 
as  an  admirable  preparation  for  the  succeeding 
chapters,  where  these  same  principles,  which  Mill 
introduces  as  supplements,  and  modifications,  and 
amendments  to  Epicureanism,  will  be  presented  as 
the  foundation-stones  of  larger  and  deeper  views 
of  life.  Mill  starts  with  a  jack-knife  which  he 
publicly  proclaims  to  be  in  every  part  of  the 
handle  and  in  every  blade  through  and  through 
Epicurean ;  then  gets  a  new  handle  from  the 
Stoics ;  borrows  one  blade  from  Plato,  and  another 
from  Aristotle;  unconsciously  steals  the  biggest 
blade  of  all  from  Christianity ;  makes  one  of  the 
best  knives  to  be  found  on  the  moral  market : 
yet  still,  in  loyalty  to  early  parental  training,  insists 
on  calling  the  finished  product  by  the  same  name 
as  that  with  which  he  started  out.     The  result  is  a 


THE   EPICUREAN   PURSUIT   OF    PLEASURE         6$ 

I  splendid  knife  to  cut  with  ;  but  a  difficult  one  to 
(  classify.  Our  quest  for  the  principles  of  person- 
ality will  not  bring  us  anything  much  better,  for 
practical  purposes,  than  the  lofty  teaching  of  Mill's 
"Utilitarianism,"  and  its  companion  in  inconsistency, 
Herbert  Spencer's  "  Principles  of  Ethics."  All  our 
five  principles  are  present  in  these  so-called  hedo- 
nistic treatises.  But  it  is  a  great  theoretical  advan- 
tage, and  ultimately  carries  with  it  considerable 
practical  gain,  to  give  credit  where  credit  is  due, 
and  to  call  things  by  their  right  names.  Thanks 
to  the  candour  of  these  heretics,  though  the  names 
we  encounter  hereafter  will  be  new,  we  shall  greet 
most  of  the  principles  we  discover  under  these  new 
names  as  old  friends  to  whom  the  Epicurean  here- 
tics gave  us  our  first  introduction.  , 


CHAPTER   II 

STOIC  SELF-CONTROL  BY  LAW 

I 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL   LAW  OF  APPERCEPTION 

The  shortest  way  to  understand  the  Stoic  prin- 
ciple is  through  the  psychological  doctrine  of 
apperception.  According  to  this  now  universally 
accepted  doctrine,  the  mind  is  not  an  empty  cabi- 
net into  which  ready-made  impressions  of  external 
things  are  dumped.  The  mind  is  an  active  pro- 
cess ;  and  the  meaning  and  value  of  any  sensation 
presented  from  without  is  determined  by  the 
reaction  upon  it  of  the  ideas  and  aims  that  are 
dominant  within.  This  doctrine  has  revolution- 
ised psychology  and  pedagogy,  and  when  rightly 
introduced  into  the  personal  life  proves  even  more 
revolutionary  there.  Stoicism  works  this  doctrine 
for  all  that  it  is  worth.  Christian  Science  and 
kindred  popular  cults  of  the  present  day  are  per- 
haps working  it  for  rather  more  than  it  is  worth. 

Translated  into  simple  everyday  terms,  this  doc- 
trine in  its  application  to  the  personal  life  means 

66  : 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY    LAW  6^ 

that  the  value  of  any  external  fact  or  possession  or 
experience  depends  on  the  way  in  which  we  take 
it.  Take  riches,  for  example.  Stocks  and  bonds, 
real  estate  and  mortgages,  money  and  bank  ac- 
counts, in  themselves  do  not  make  a  man  either 
rich  or  poor.  They  may  enrich  or  they  may  im- 
poverish his  personality.  It  is  not  until  they  are 
taken  up  into  the  mind,  thought  over,  related  to 
one's  general  scheme  of  conduct,  made  the  basis  of 
one's  purposes  and  plans,  that  they  become  a  fac- 
tor in  the  personal  life.  Obviously  the  same 
amount  of  money,  a  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
may  be  worked  over  into  personal  life  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways.  One  man  is  made  proud  by  it. 
Another  is  made  lazy.  Another  is  made  hard- 
hearted. Another  is  made  avaricious  for  more. 
Another  is  fired  with  the  desire  to  speculate. 
Another  is  filled  with  anxiety  lest  he  may  lose  it. 
All  these  are  obviously  impoverished  by  the  so- 
called  wealth  which  they  possess.  To  rich  men's 
wives  and  children,  whose  wealth  comes  with 
out  the  strenuous  exertion  and  close  human  con- 
tact involved  in  earning  it,  it  generally  works 
their  personal  impoverishment  in  one  or  more  of 
these  fatal  ways.  For  wealth,  in  an  indolent,  self- 
indulgent,  vain,  conceited,  ostentatious,  unsympa- 
thetic mind,  takes  on  the  colour  of  these  odious 


68         FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

qualities,  and  becomes  a  curse  to  its  possessor; 

just  because  he  or  she  is  cursed  with  these  evil 

/  propensities  already,  and  the  wealth  simply  adds 

^     fuel  to  the  preexistent,  though  perhaps  latent  and 

smouldering  flames. 

On  the  other  hand  one  man  is  made  grateful 
for  the  wealth  he  has  been  able  to  accumulate. 
Another  is  made  more  sympathetic.  Another  is 
made  generous.  Another  is  urged  into  the  larger 
public  service  his  independent  means  makes  pos- 
sible. Another  is  lifted  up  into  a  sense  of  respon- 
sibility for  its  right  use.  On  the  whole  the  men 
and  women  who  earn  their  money  honestly  are 
usually  affected  in  one  or  more  of  these  beneficial 
ways,  and  their  wealth  becomes  an  enrichment  of 
their  personality.  —  i 

Now  it  is  impossible  that  this  hundred  thousand 
dollars  should  get  into  any  man's  mind,  and  be- 
come a  mental  state,  without  its  being  mixed  with 
one  or  other  of  these  mental,  emotional,  and  voli- 
tional accompaniments.  The  mental  state,  in  other 
words,  is  a  compound,  of  which  the  external  fact, 
in  this  case  the  hundred  thousand  dollars,  is  the 
least  important  ingredient.  It  is  so  unimportant 
a  factor  that  the  Stoics  pronounced  it  indifferent. 
The  tone  and  temper  in  which  we  accept  our 
riches,  the  ends  to  which  we  devote  them,  the 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  69 

spirit  in  which  we  hold  them,  the  way  in  which 
we  spend  them,  are  so  vastly  more  important  than 
the  mere  fact  of  having  them,  that  by  comparison, 
the  fact  itself  seems  indifferent.  Like  all  strong 
statements,  this  is  doubtless  an  exaggeration. 
•  You  cannot  have  just  the  same  mental  state 
without  riches  that  you  can  have  with  them. 
The  external  fact  is  a  factor,  though  a  relatively 
small  one,  in  the  composite  mental  state.  The 
virtues  of  a  rich  man  are  not  precisely  the  same 
as  the  virtues  of  a  poor  man.  Yet  the  Stoic 
paradox  is  very  much  nearer  the  truth  than  the 
statement  of  the  average  man,  that  external 
things  are  the  whole,  or  even  the  most  important 
part  of  our  mental  states. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  health  and  sickness. 
Health  often  makes  one  careless,  insensitive,  neg- 
ligent of  duty;  while  sickness  often  makes  one 
conscientious,  considerate,  faithful,  and  thus  more 
useful  and  efficient  than  his  healthy  brother.  Pop- 
ularity often  puffs  up  with  pride ;  while  persecution, 
by  humbling,  prepares  the  heart  for  truer  blessed- 
ness. Hence  whether  an  external  fact  is  good  or 
evil,  depends  on  how  we  take  it,  what  we  make  of 
it,  the  state  of  mind  and  heart  and  will  into  which 
it  enters  as  a  factor ;  and  that  in  turn  depends,  the 
Stoic  tells  us,  on  ourselves,  and  is  under  our  control. 


70  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

Stoicism  is  fundamentally  this  psychological  doc- 
trine of  apperception,  carried  over  and  applied  in 
the  field  of  the  personal  life, — the  doctrine,  namely, 
that  no  external  thing  alone  can  affect  us  for  good 
or  evil,  until  we  have  woven  it  into  the  texture  of 
our  mental  life,  painted  it  with  the  colour  of  our 
dominant  mood  and  temper,  and  stamped  it  with 
the  approval  of  our  will.  Thus  everything  except 
a  slight  residuum  is  through  and  through  mental, 
our  own  product,  the  expression  of  what  we  are 
and  desire  to  be.  The  only  difference  between 
Stoicism  and  Christian  Science  at  this  point  is  that 
Stoicism  recognises  the  material  element;  though 
it  does  so  only  to  minimise  it,  and  pronounce  it 
indifferent.  Christian  Science  denies  that  there  is 
any  physical  fact,  or  even  the  raw  material  out  of 
which  to  make  one.  All  is  merely  mental,  says 
the  consistent  Christian  Scientist  with  the  tooth- 
ache. There  is  no  matter  there  to  ache.  The 
Stoic,  truer  to  the  facts,  and  in  not  less  but 
more  heroic  spirit  declares  :  v.*  There  is  matter,  but 
it  doesn't  matter  if  there  is.'!>  The  toothache  can 
be  taken  as  a  spur  to  greater  fortitude  and 
equanimity  than  the  man  whose  teeth  are  all  sound 
has  had  opportunity  to  practically  exemplify ; 
and  so  the  total  mental  state,  toothache-borne- 
with-fortitude,  may  be  positively  good. 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  7 1 

This  doctrine  that  external  things  never  in 
themselves  constitute  a  mental  state ;  that  they  are 
consequently  indifferent;  that  the  all-important 
contribution  is  made  by  the  mind  itself ;  that  this 
contribution  from  the  mind  is  what  gives  the  tone 
and  determines  the  worth  of  the  total  mental  state ; 
and  that  this  contribution  is  exclusively  our  own 
affair  and  may  be  brought  entirely  under  our  own 
control ;  —  this  is  the  first  and  most  fundamental 
Stoic  principle.  If  we  have  grasped  this  principle, 
we  are  prepared  to  read  intelligently  and  sympa- 
thetically the  otherwise  startling  and  paradoxical 
deliverances  of  the  Stoic  masters. 

II 

SELECTIONS   FROM   THE   STOIC    SCRIPTURES 

First  let  us  listen  to  Epictetus,  the  slave,  the 
Stpic  of  the  cottage  as  he  has  been  called:  — 

"  Everything  has  two  handles :  one  by  which  it 
may  be  borne,  another  by  which  it  cannot.  If 
your  brother  acts  unjustly,  do  not  lay  hold  on  the 
affair  by  the  handle  of  his  injustice,  for  by  that  it 
cannot  be  borne  ;  but  rather  by  the  opposite,  that 
he  is  your  brother,  that  he  was  brought  up  with 
you,  and  thus  you  will  lay  hold  on  it  as  it  is  to  be 
borne."     Here  the  handle  is  a  homely  but  effec- 


72  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

tive  figure  for  the  mass  of  mental  association  into 
which  the  external  fact  of  a  brother  who  acts 
unjustly  is  introduced  before  he  actually  enters 
our  mental  state,  and  determines  how  we  shall  feel 
and  act. 

"  If  a  person  had  delivered  up  your  body  to  some 
passer-by,  you  would  certainly  be  angry.  And  do 
you  feel  no  shame  in  delivering  up  your  mind  to 
any  reviler,  to  be  disconcerted  and  confounded?" 
The  reviling  does  not  become  a  determining  fac- 
tor in  my  own  mental  state  unless  I  choose  to 
let  it.  If  I  feel  humiliated  and  stung  by  it,  it  is 
because  I  am  weak  and  foolish  enough  to  stake 
my  estimate  of  myself,  and  my  consequent  happi- 
ness, upon  what  somebody  who  does  not  know  me 
says  about  me,  rather  than  on  what  I,  who  know 
myself  better  than  anybody  else,  actually  think. 
A  boy  at  Phillips  Andover  Academy  once  drew 
this  distinction  very  adroitly  for  another  boy. 
There  had  been  a  free  fight  among  the  boys  caus- 
ing a  great  deal  of  disturbance,  and  Principal 
Bancroft  had  traced  the  beginning  of  it  to  an 
insulting  remark  on  the  part  of  the  boy  in 
question.  Dr.  Bancroft  accused  him  of  beginning 
the  trouble.  "  No,  sir,"  said  the  boy,  "  I  did  not 
begin  it.  The  other  fellow  began  it."  "Well," 
said  Principal  Bancroft,  "you  tell  me  precisely  what 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  73 

took  place,  and  I  will  decide  who  began  it."  "  Oh," 
replied  the  boy,  "  I  simply  called  him  a  *  darned  ' 
fool,  and  he  took  offence."  Now  if  the  other  boy 
had  been  a  Stoic,  he  would  not  have  taken  offence, 
and  the  first  boy  might  have  called  him  a  fool  with 
impunity.  Imputing  Stoicism  to  that  extent  to 
other  people,  however,  is  very  dangerous  business. 
Stoicism  is  a  doctrine  to  be  strictly  applied  to  our- 
selves, but  never  imputed  to  other  people,  least 
of  all  to  the  people  we  wish  to  abuse  and  revile. 

Epictetus  again  states  his  doctrine  most  ex- 
plicitly on  the  subject  of  terrors.  "  Men  are  dis- 
turbed not  by  things,  but  by  the  view  which  they 
take  of  things.  Thus  death  is  nothing  terrible 
else  it  would  have  appeared  so  to  Socrates.  But 
the  terror  consists  in  our  notion  of  death,  that  it  is 
terrible.  When,  therefore,  we  are  hindered,  or 
disturbed,  or  grieved,  let  us  never  impute  it  to 
others,  but  to  ourselves ;  that  is,  to  our  views." 

Again  he  makes  a  sharp  distinction  between 
what  is  in  our  power,  —  that  is,  what  we  think  about 
things ;  and  what  are  not  in  our  power,  — that  is  ex- 
ternal facts.  "  There  are  things  which  are  within  our 
power,  and  there  are  things  which  are  beyond  our 
power.  Within  our  power  are  opinion,  aim,  desire, 
aversion,  and,  in  one  word,  whatever  affairs  are  our 
own.      Beyond    our   power    are    body,    property. 


74  '    FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

reputation,  office,  and,  in  one  word,  whatever  are 
not  properly  our  own  affairs." 

"  Now  the  things  within  our  power  are  by 
nature  free,  unrestricted,  unhindered ;  but  those 
beyond  our  power  are  weak,  dependent,  restricted, 
alien.  Remember,  then,  that  if  you  attribute  free- 
dom to  things  by  nature  dependent,  and  seek  for 
your  own  that  which  is  really  controlled  by  others, 
you  will  be  hindered,  you  will  lament,  you  will  be  dis- 
turbed, you  will  find  fault  both  with  gods  and  men. 
But  if  you  take  for  your  own  only  that  which  is 
your  own,  and  view  what  belongs  to  others  just  as  it 
really  is,  then  no  one  will  ever  compel  you,  no  one 
will  restrict  you ;  you  will  find  fault  with  no  one,  you 
will  accuse  no  one,  you  will  do  nothing  against 
your  will ;  no  one  will  hurt  you,  you  will  not  have 
an  enemy,  nor  will  you  suffer  any  harm." 

All  this  is  simply  carrying  out  the  principle  that 
we  need  not  concern  ourselves  about  purely  ex- 
ternal things,  for  those  things  pure  and  simple 
can  never  get  into  our  minds,  or  affect  us  one  way 
or  the  other.  The  only  things  that  enter  into  us 
are  things  as  we  think  about  them,  facts  as  we 
feel  about  them,  forces  as  we  react  upon  them, 
and  these  thoughts,  feelings,  and  reactions  are  our 
own  affairs ;  and  if  we  do  not  think  serenely,  feel 
tranquilly,  and  act  freely  with  reference  to  them, 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY    LAW  75 

it  is  not  the  fault  of  external  things,  but  of  our- 
selves. 

In  his  discourse  on  tranquillity  Epictetus  gives 
us  the  same  counsel.  "  Consider,  you  who  are 
about  to  undergo  trial,  what  you  wish  to  preserve, 
and  in  what  to  succeed.  For  if  you  wish  to  pre- 
serve a  mind  in  harmony  with  nature,  you  are 
entirely  safe ;  everything  goes  well ;  you  have  no 
trouble  on  your  hands.  While  you  wish  to  preserve 
that  freedom  which  belongs  to  you,  and  are  con- 
tented with  that,  for  what  have  you  longer  to  be 
anxious.?  For  who  is  the  master  of  things  like 
these  ?  Who  can  take  them  away .-'  If  you  wish 
to  be  a  man  of  modesty  and  fidelity,  who  shall 
prevent  you }  If  you  wish  not  to  be  restrained 
or  compelled,  who  shall  compel  you  to  desires 
contrary  to  your  principles  ?  to  aversions  contrary 
to  your  opinion.?  The  judge,  perhaps,  will  pass  a 
sentence  against  you  which  he  thinks  formidable ; 
but  can  he  likewise  make  you  receive  it  with 
shrinking  ?  Since,  then,  desire  and  aversion  are  in 
your  power,  for  what  have  you  to  be  anxious  ?  " 

Epictetus  bids  us  meet  difficulties  in  the  same 
way.  "  Difficulties  are  things  that  show  what 
men  are.  For  the  future,  in  case  of  any  difficulty, 
remember  that  God,  like  a  gymnastic  trainer,  has 
pitted  you  against  a  rough  antagonist.     For  what 


76  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

end  ?  That  you  may  be  an  Olympic  conqueror ; 
and  this  cannot  be  without  toil.  No  man,  in  my 
opinion,  has  a  more  profitable  difficulty  on  his  hands 
than  you  have,  provided  you  but  use  it  as  an 
athletic  champion  uses  his  antagonist." 

Epictetus  does  not  shrink  from  the  logic  of  his 
teaching  in  its  application  to  the  sorrows  of  others, 
though  here  it  is  tempered  by  a  concession  to  the 
weakness  of  ordinary  mortals.  "  When  you  see  a 
person  weeping  in  sorrow,  either  when  a  child  goes 
abroad,  or  when  he  is  dead,  or  when  the  man  has 
lost  his  property,  take  care  that  the  appearance 
do  not  hurry  you  away  with  it  as  if  he  were 
suffering  in  external  things.  But  straightway 
make  a  distinction  in  your  mind,  and  be  in  readi- 
ness to  say,  it  is  not  that  which  has  happened  that 
afflicts  this  man,  for  it  does  not  afflict  another,  but 
it  is  the  opinion  about  this  thing  which  afflicts  the 
man.  So  far  as  words,  then,  do  not  be  unwilling 
to  show  him  sympathy,  and  even  if  it  happens  so, 
to  lament  with  him.  But  take  care  that  you  do 
not  lament  internally  also."  At  this  point,  if  not 
before,  we  feel  that  Stoicism  is  doing  violence  to 
the  nobler  feelings  of  our  nature,  and  are  prepared 
to  break  with  it.  Stoicism  is  too  hard  and  cold 
and  individualistic  to  teach  us  our  duty,  or  even  to 
leave  us  free  to  act  out  our  best  inclinations,  toward 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  7/ 

our  neighbour.  We  may  be  as  Stoical  as  we  please 
in  our  own  troubles  and  afflictions  ;  but  let  us 
beware  how  we  carry  over  its  icy  distinctions  into 
our  interpretation  of  our  neighbour's  suffering. 

I  have  drawn  most  of  my  illustrations  from 
Epictetus,  because  this  resignation  comes  with 
rather  better  grace  from  a  poor,  lame  man,  who 
has  been  a  slave,  and  who  lives  on  the  barest 
necessities  of  life,  than  from  the  Emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  the  wealthy  courtier  Seneca.  Yet  the 
most  distinctive  utterances  of  these  men  teach  the 
same  lesson.  Seneca  attributes  it  to  his  pilot  in 
the  famous  prayer,  "Oh,  Neptune,  you  may  save 
me  if  you  will ;  you  may  sink  me  if  you  will ;  but 
whatever  happens,  I  shall  keep  my  rudder  true." 
Marcus  Aurelius  says :  "  Let  the  part  of  thy  soul 
which  leads  and  governs  be  undisturbed  by  the 
movements  in  the  flesh,  whether  of  pleasure  or 
pain ;  and  let  it  not  unite  itself  with  them,  but  let 
it  circumscribe  itself,  and  limit  those  effects  to 
their  parts."  "  Let  it  make  no  difference  to  thee 
whether  thou  art  cold  or  warm,  if  thou  art  doing 
thy  duty,  and  whether  dying  or  doing  something 
else.  For  it  is  one  of  the  acts  of  life,  —  this  act  by 
which  we  die ;  it  is  sufficient  then  in  this  act  also 
to  do  well  what  we  have  in  hand."  "  External 
things  touch  not  the  soul,  not  in  the  least  degree," 


78  ,    FROM   EPICURUS    TO   CHRIST 

"  Remember  on  every  occasion  which  leads  thee  to 
vexation  to  apply  this  principle :  that  this  is  not  a 
misfortune,  but  to  bear  it  nobly  is  good  fortune." 

The  most  recent  prophet  of  Stoicism  is  Maurice 
Maeterlinck.  In  "Wisdom  and  Destiny,"  he 
says :  — 

"  The  event  itself  is  pure  water  that  flows  from 
the  pitcher  of  fate,  and  seldom  has  it  either  savour 
or  perfume  or  colour.  But  even  as  the  soul  may  be 
wherein  it  seeks  shelter,  so  will  the  event  become 
joyous  or  sad,  become  tender  or  hateful,  become 
deadly  or  quick  with  life.  To  those  round  about 
us  there  happen  incessant  and  countless  adven- 
tures, whereof  every  one,  it  would  seem,  contains 
a  germ  of  heroism ;  but  the  adventure  passes 
away,  and  heroic  deed  there  is  none.  But  when 
Jesus  Christ  met  the  Samaritan,  met  a  few  chil- 
dren, an  adulterous  woman,  then  did  humanity  rise 
three  times  in  succession  to  the  level  of  God." 

"  It  might  almost  be  said  that  there  happens  to 
men  only  that  they  desire.  It  is  true  that  on  cer- 
tain external  events  our  influence  is  of  the  feeblest, 
but  we  have  all-powerful  action  on  that  which  these 
events  shall  become  in  ourselves  — in  other  words, 
on  their  spiritual  part.  The  life  of  most  men  will 
be  saddened  or  lightened  by  the  thing  that  may 
chance  to  befall  them,  —  in  the  men  whom  I  speak 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY    LAW  79 

of,  whatever  may  happen  is  lit  up  by  their  inward 
life.  If  you  have  been  deceived,  it  is  not  the  de- 
ception that  matters,  but  the  forgiveness  whereto 
it  gave  birth  in  your  soul,  and  the  loftiness,  wis- 
dom, completeness  of  this  forgiveness,  —  by  these 
shall  your  eyes  see  more  clearly  than  if  all  men 
had  ever  been  faithful.  But  if,  by  this  act  of 
deceit,  there  have  come  not  more  simpleness, 
loftier  faith,  wider  range  to  your  love,  then  have 
you  been  deceived  in  vain,  and  may  truly  say 
nothing  has  happened." 

"  Let  us  always  remember  that  nothing  befalls 
us  that  is  not  of  the  nature  of  ourselves.  f>  There 
comes  no  adventure  but  wears  to  our  soul  the 
shape  of  our  everyday  thoughts ;]  and  deeds  of 
heroism  are  but  offered  to  those  who,  for  many 
long  years,  have  been  heroes  in  obscurity  and 
silence.  And  whether  you  climb  up  the  mountain 
or  go  down  the  hill  to  the  valley,  whether  you 
journey  to  the  end  of  the  world  or  merely  walk 
round  your  house,  none  but  yourself  shall  you 
meet  on  the  highway  of  fate.  If  Judas  go  forth 
to-night,  it  is  toward  Judas  his  steps  will  tend,  nor 
will  chance  for  betrayal  be  lacking ;  but  let  Socra- 
tes open  his  door,  —  he  shall  find  Socrates  asleep 
on  the  threshold  before  him,  and  there  will  be  occa- 
sion for  wisdom.  /  We  become  that  which  we  dis- 


80  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

cover  in  the  sorrows  and  joys  that  befall  us  ;^  and 
the  least  expected  caprices  of  fate  soon  mould 
themselves  to  our  thought.  It  is  in  our  past  that 
Destiny  finds  all  her  weapons,  her  vestments,  her 
jewels.  A  sorrow  your  soul  has  changed  into 
sweetness,  to  indulgence  or  patient  smiles,  is  a  sor- 
row that  shall  never  return  without  spiritual  orna- 
ment ;  and  a  fault  or  defect  you  have  looked  in  the 
face  can  harm  you  no  more.  All  that  has  thus 
been  transformed  can  belong  no  more  to  the  hos- 
tile powers.  Real  fatality  exists  only  in  certain 
external  disasters  —  as  disease,  accident,  the  sud- 
den death  of  those  we  love;  but  inner  fatality 
there  is  none.  Wisdom  has  will  power  sufficient 
to  rectify  all  that  does  not  deal  death  to  the  body ; 
it  will  even  at  times  invade  the  narrow  domain  of 
external  fatality.  Even  when  the  deed  has  been 
done,  the  misfortune  has  happened,  it  still  rests 
with  ourselves  to  deny  her  the  least  influence  on 
that  which  shall  come  to  pass  in  our  soul.  She 
may  strike  at  the  heart  that  is  eager  for  good,  but 
still  is  she  helpless  to  keep  back  the  light  that 
shall  stream  to  this  heart  from  the  error  acknow- 
ledged, the  pain  undergone.  It  is  not  in  her  power 
to  prevent  the  soul  from  transforming  each  single 
affliction  into  thoughts,  into  feelings,  and  treasure 
she  dare  not  profane.     Be  her  empire  never  so 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  8 1 

great  over  all  things  external,  she  always  must 
halt  when  she  finds  on  the  threshold  a  silent  guar- 
dian of  the  inner  life.  For  even  as  triumph  of 
dictators  and  consuls  could  be  celebrated  only  in 
Rome,  so  can  the  true  triumph  of  Fate  take  place 
nowhere  save  in  our  soul." 

It  would  be  easy  to  cite  passage  after  passage 
in  which  the  great  masters  of  Stoicism  ring  the 
changes  on  this  idea,  that  the  external  thing, 
whether  it  be  good  or  evil,  cannot  get  into  the  for- 
tified citadel  of  my  mind,  and  therefore  cannot 
touch  me.  /  Before  it  can  touch  me  it  must  first  be 
incorporated  into  my  mind.  In  the  very  act  of 
incorporation  it  undergoes  a  transformation,  which 
in  the  perverse  man  may  change  the  best  external 
things  into  poison  and  bitterness ;  and  in  the  sage 
is  able  to  convert  the  worst  of  external  facts  into 
virtue,  glory,  and  honour.  Out  of  indifferent  exter- 
nal matter,  thinking  makes  the  world  in  which  we 
live;  and  if  it  is  not  a  good  world,  the  fault  is, 
not  with  the  indifferent  external  matters, — such  as, 
to  take  Epictetus's  enumeration  of  them,  "  wealth, 
health,  life,  death,  pleasure,  and  pain,  which  lie 
between  the  virtues  and  the  vices," -^  but  in  our 
weak  and  erroneous  thinking.  J 


82  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

III 

THE   STOIC   REVERENCE   FOR   UNIVERSAL   LAW 

The  first  half  of  the  Stoic  doctrine  is  that  we 
give  our  world  the  colour  of  our  thoughts.\  The 
second  half  of  Stoicism  is  concerned  with  what 
these  thoughts  of  ours  shall  be.  The  first  half  of 
the  doctrine  alone  would  leave  us  in  crude  fan- 
tastic Cynicism,  —  the  doctrine  out  of  which  the 
broader  and  deeper  Stoic  teaching  took  its  rise. 
The  Cynic  paints  the  world  in  the  flaring  colours  of 
his  undisciplined,  individual  caprice.  Modern  apos- 
tles of  the  essential  Stoic  principle  incline  to  paint 
the  world  in  the  roseate  hues  of  a  merely  optional 
optimism.  They  want  to  be  well,  and  happy,  and 
serene,  and  self-satisfied;'^they  think  they  are;  and 
thinking  makes  them  so.  If  Stoicism  had  been 
as  superficial  as  that,  as  capricious,  and  tempera- 
mental, and  individualistic,  it  would  not  have  lasted 
as  it  has  for  more  than  two  thousand  years.  The 
Stoic  thought  had  substance,  content,  objective 
reality,  as  unfortunately  most  of  the  current  phases 
of  popular  philosophy  have  not.  This  objective 
and  universal  principle  the  Stoic  found  in  law. 
We  must  think  things,  not  as  we  would  like  to 
have  them,  which  is  the  optimism  of  the  fabled  os- 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  83 

trich,  with  its  head  in  the  sand  ;  not  in  some  vague, 
general  phrases  which  mean  nothing,  which  is  the 
optimism  of  mysticism  (:  but  in  the  hard,  rigid  terms 
of  universal  law.-  Everything  that  happens  is  part 
of  the  one  great  whole.  The  law  of  the  whole 
determines  the  nature  and  worth  of  the  part. 
Seen  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  whole,  every 
part  is  necessary,  and  therefore  good,  — everything 
except,  as  Cleanthes  says  in  his  hymn,  "what  the 
wicked  do  in  their  foolishness."  The  typical  evils 
of  life  can  all  be  brought  under  the  Stoic  formula, 
under  some  beneficial  law ;  all,  that  is,  except  sin. 
That  particular  form  of  evil  was  not  satisfactorily 
dealt  with  until  the  advent  of  Christianity. 

Take  evils  of  accident  to  begin  with.  An  aged 
man  slips  on  the  ice,  falls,  breaks  a  bone,  and  is 
left,  like  Epictetus,  lame  for  life.  The  particular 
application  of  the  law  of  gravitation  in  this  case 
has  unfortunate  results  for  the  individual.  But 
the  law  is  good.  We  should  not  know  how  to 
get  along  in  the  world  without  this  beneficent  law. 
Shall  we  repine  and  complain  against  the  law  that 
holds  the  stars  and  planets  in  their  courses,  shapes 
the  mountains,  sways  the  tides,  brings  down  the 
rain,  and  draws  the  rivers  to  the  sea,  turning  ten 
thousand  mill-wheels  of  industry  as  it  goes  rejoic- 
ing on  its  way  ;  shall  we  complain  against  this  law 


84  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

because  in  one  instance  in  a  thousand  million  it 
chances  to  throw  down  an  individual,  which  hap- 
pens to  be  me,  and  breaks  a  bone  or  two  of  mine, 
and  leaves  me  for  the  brief  span  of  my  remain- 
:  ing  pilgrimage  with  a  limping  gait  ?     If  Epictetus 
could  say  to  his  cruel  master  under  torture,  "You 
I  will  break  my  leg  if  you  keep  on,"  and  then  when 
;  it  broke  could  smilingly  add,  "  I  told  you  so," — can- 
/  not  we  endure  with   fortitude,  and  even  grateful 
joy,  the  incidental  inflictions  which  so  beneficent  a 
I   master  as  the  great  law  of  gravitation  in  its  mag- 
\  nificent  impartiality  may  see  fit  to  mete  out  to  us  ? 
A  current  of   electricity,  seeking  its  way  from 
sky  to  earth,  finds  on  some  particular  occasion  the 
body  of  a  beloved  husband,  a  dear  son,  an  honoured 
father  of  dependent  children,  the  best  conductor 
between  the  air  and  the  earth,  and  kills  the  person 
through  whose   body  it  takes  its  swift  and  fatal 
course.      Yet  this  law  has  no  malevolence  in  its 
impartial  heart.     On  the  contrary  the  beneficent 
potency  of  the  laws  of  electricity  is  so  great  that 
our  largest  hopes  for  the  improvement  of  our  eco- 
nomic condition  rest  on  its  unexplored  resources. 
,       A  group  of  bacteria,  ever  alert  to  find  matter  not 
already  appropriated  and   held  in  place  by  vital 
forces  stronger  than  their  own,  find  their  food  and 
breeding  place  within  a  human  body,  and  subject 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY  LAW  8$ 

our  friend  or  our  child  to  weeks  of  fever,  and  per- 
chance to  death.  Yet  we  cannot  call  evil  the  great 
biological  law  that  each  organism  shall  seek  its 
meat  from  God  wherever  it  can  find  it.  Indeed 
were  it  not  for  these  micro-organisms,  and  their 
alertness  to  seize  upon  and  transform  into  their 
own  living  substance  everything  morbid  and  un- 
wholesome, the  whole  earth  would  be  nothing  but 
a  vast  charnel  house  reeking  with  the  intolerable 
stench  of  the  undisintegrated  and  unburied  dead. 
The  most  uncompromising  exponent  of  this 
second  half  of  the  Stoic  doctrine  in  the  modern 
world  is  Immanuel  Kant.  According  to  him  the 
whole  worth  and  dignity  of  life  turns  not  on 
external  fortune,  nor  even  on  good  natural  en- 
dowments, but  on  our  internal  reaction,  the  rev- 
erence of  our  will  for  universal  law.  "  Nothing 
can  possibly  be  conceived  in  the  world,  or  even 
out  of  it,  which  can  be  called  good  without  quali- 
fication, except  a  Good  Will.  Intelligence,  wit, 
judgment,  and  the  other  talents  of  the  mind,  how- 
ever they  may  be  named,  or  courage,  resolution, 
perseverance,  as  qualities  of  temperament,  are 
undoubtedly  good  and  desirable  in  many  respects ; 
but  these  gifts  of  nature  may  also  become  ex- 
tremely bad  and  mischievous  if  the  will  which 
is  to  make   use   of   them,   and  which,  therefore. 


86  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

constitutes  what  is  called  character,  is  not  good. 
It  is  the  same  with  the  gifts  of  fortune.  Power, 
riches,  honour,  even  health,  and  the  general  well- 
being  and  contentment  with  one's  condition 
which  is  called  happiness,  inspire  pride  and 
often  presumption,  if  there  is  not  a  good  will 
to  correct  the  influence  of  these  on  the  mind." 

"  Everything  in  nature  works  according  to  laws. 
Rational  beings  alone  have  the  faculty  of  acting 
according  to  the  conception  of  laws,  that  is,  ac- 
cording to  principles ;  i.e.  have  a  will." 

"  Consequently  the  only  good  action  is  that  which 
is  done  out  of  pure  reverence  for  universal  law. 
This  categorical  imperative  of  duty  is  expressed 
as  follows :  '  Act  as  if  the  maxim  of  thy  action 
were  to  become  by  thy  will  a  Universal  Law  of 
Nature.'  And  since  every  other  rational  being 
must  conduct  himself  on  the  same  rational  prin- 
ciple that  holds  for  me,  I  am  bound  to  respect 
him  as  I  do  myself.  Hence  the  second  practical 
imperative  is :  *  So  act  as  to  treat  humanity, 
whether  in  thine  own  person  or  in  that  of  any 
other,  in  every  case  as  an  end,  never  as  means 
only.' " 

In  Kant  Stoicism  reaches  its  climax.  Law  and 
the  will  are  everything :  possessions,  even  graces 
are  nothing. 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  8/ 

IV 

THE   STOIC   SOLUTION   OF   THE   PROBLEM   OF    EVIL 

The  problem  of  evil  was  the  great  problem  of 
the  Stoic,  as  the  problem  of  pleasure  was  the 
problem  of  the  Epicurean.  To  this  problem  the 
Stoic  gives  substantially  four  answers,  with  all 
of  which  we  are  already  somewhat  familiar  :  — 

First:  Only  that  is  evil  which  we  choose  to 
regard  as  such.  To  quote  Marcus  Aurelius  once 
more  on  this  fundamental  point :  "  Consider  that 
everything  is  opinion,  and  opinion  is  in  thy  power. 
Take  away  then,  when  thou  choosest,  thy  opin- 
ion, and  like  a  mariner  who  has  doubled  the 
promontory,  thou  wilt  find  calm,  everything  sta- 
ble, and  a  waveless  bay."  "  Take  away  thy 
opinion,  and  then  there  is  taken  away  the  com- 
plaint :  I  have  been  harmed.  Take  away  the 
complaint :  I  have  been  harmed,  and  the  harm 
is  done  away," 

Second :  Since  virtue  or  integrity  is  the  only 
good,  nothing  but  the  loss  of  that  can  be  a 
real  evil.  When  this  is  present,  nothing  of  real 
value  can  be  lacking.  As  Epictetus  says,  "  Vir- 
tue suffers  no  vacancy  in  the  place  she  inhabits ; 
she   fills   the  whole   soul,  takes   away   the   sensi- 


88  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

bility  of  any  loss,  and  is  herself  sufficient."  "  As 
the  stars  hide  their  diminished  heads  before  the 
brightness  of  the  sun,  so  pains,  afflictions,  and 
injuries  are  all  crushed  and  dissipated  by  the 
greatness  of  virtue ;  whenever  she  shines,  every- 
thing but  what  borrows  its  splendour  from  her 
disappears,  and  all  manner  of  annoyances  have 
no  more  effect  upon  her  than  a  shower  of  rain 
upon  the  sea."  "  It  does  not  matter  what  you 
bear,  but  how  you  bear  it."  "  Where  a  man 
can  live  at  all,  he  can  live  well."  "I  must  die. 
Must  I  then  die  lamenting  ?  I  must  go  into 
exile.  Does  any  man  hinder  me  from  going  with 
smiles  and  cheerfulness  and  contentment  .•' "  "  Life 
itself  is  neither  good  nor  evil,  but  only  a  place 
for  good  and  evil."  "  It  is  the  edge  and  temper 
of  the  blade  that  make  a  good  sword,  not  the 
richness  of  the  scabbard ;  and  so  it  is  not  money 
and  possessions  that  make  a  man  considerable, 
but  his  virtue."  "They  are  amusing  fellows 
who  are  proud  of  things  which  are  not  in  our 
power.  A  man  says :  I  am  better  than  you 
for  I  possess  much  land,  and  you  are  wasting 
with  hunger.  Another  says  :  I  am  of  consular 
rank ;  another :  I  have  curly  hair.  But  a  horse 
does  not  say  to  a  horse :  I  am  superior  to  you, 
for   I   possess    much   fodder    and   much    barley, 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY    LAW  89 

and  my  bits  are  of  gold,  and  my  harness  is 
embroidered;  but  he  says :  I  am  swifter  than 
you.  And  every  animal  is  better  or  worse  from 
his  own  merit  or  his  own  badness.  Is  there 
then  no  virtue  in  man  only,  and  must  we  look 
to  our  hair,  and  our  clothes,  and  to  our  ances- 
tors .'' "  "  Let  our  riches  consist  in  coveting 
nothing,  and  our  peace  in  fearing  nothing." 

Third :  What  seems  evil  to  the  individual  is 
good  for  the  whole:  and  since  we  are  members 
of  the  whole  is  good  for  us.  "  Must  my  leg 
be  lamed?"  the  Stoic  asks.  "Wretch,  do  you  then 
on  account  of  one  poor  leg  find  fault  with  the 
world?  Wilt  thou  not  willingly  surrender  it  for 
the  whole  ?  Know  you  not  how  small  a  part 
you  are  compared  with  the  whole  ?  " 

"  If  a  good  man  had  foreknowledge  of  what 
would  happen,  he  would  cooperate  toward  his  own 
sickness  and  death  and  mutilation,  since  he  knows 
that  these  things  are  assigned  to  him  according  to 
the  universal  arrangement,  and  that  the  whole  is 
superior  to  the  part." 

Fourth :  Trial  brings  out  our  best  qualities,  is 
**  stuff  to  try  the  soul's  strength  on,"  and  "  educe 
the  man,"  as  Browning  puts  it.  This  interpreta- 
tion of  evil  as  a  means  of  bringing  out  the  higher 
moral  qualities,  though  not  peculiar  to  Stoicism, 


90  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

was  very  congenial  to  their  system,  and  appears 
frequently  in  their  writings.  "Just  as  we  must 
understand  when  it  is  said  that  ^sculapius  pre- 
scribed to  this  man  horse  exercise,  or  bathing  in 
cold  water,  or  going  without  shoes,  so  we  must 
understand  it  when  it  is  said  that  the  nature  of 
the  universe  prescribed  to  this  man  disease,  or  mu- 
tilation, or  loss  of  anything  of  the  kind."  "  Ca- 
lamity is  the  touchstone  of  a  brave  mind,  that 
resolves  to  live  and  die  master  of  itself.  Adversity 
is  the  better  for  us  all,  for  it  is  God's  mercy  to 
show  the  world  their  errors,  and  that  the  things 
they  fear  and  covet  are  neither  good  nor  evil, 
being  the  common  and  promiscuous  lot  of  good 
men  and  bad." 


THE   STOIC   PARADOXES 

A  good  test  of  one's  appreciation  of  the  Stoic 
position  is  whether  or  not  one  can  see  the  measure 
of  truth  their  paradoxes  contain. 

The  first  paradox  is  that  there  are  no  degrees  in 
vice.  In  the  words  of  the  Stoic,  "  The  man  who 
is  a  hundred  furlongs  from  Canopus,  and  the 
man  who  is  only  one,  are  both  equally  not  in 
Canopus." 

One  of  the  few  bits  of  moral  counsel  which  I 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  9 1 

remember  from  the  infant  class  in  the  Sunday- 
school  runs  as  follows:  — 

"  It  is  a  sin 
To  steal  a  pin : 
Much  more  to  steal 
A  greater  thing." 

This,  in  spite  of  its  exquisite  lyrical  expression,  the 
Stoic  would  flatly  deny.  The  theft  of  a  pin,  and 
the  defalcation  of  a  bank  cashier  for  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars;  a  cross  word  to  a  dog,  and  a 
course  of  conduct  which  breaks  a  woman's  heart, 
are  from  the  Stoic  standpoint  precisely  on  a  level. 
For  it  is  not  the  consequences  but  the  form  of  our 
action  that  is  the  important  thing.  It  is  not  how 
we  make  other  people  feel  as  a  result  of  our  act, 
but  how  we  ourselves  think  of  it,  as  we  propose  to 
do  it,  or  after  it  is  done,  that  determines  its  good- 
ness or  badness.  If  I  steal  a  pin,  I  violate  the 
universal  law  just  as  clearly  and  absolutely  as 
though  I  stole  the  hundred  thousand  dollars.  I 
can  no  more  look  with  deliberate  approval  on  the 
cross  word  to  a  dog,  than  on  the  breaking  of  a 
woman's  heart.  There  are  things  that  do  not 
admit  of  degrees.  We  must  either  fire  our  gun 
off  or  not  fire  it.  We  cannot  fire  part  of  the 
charge.  We  want  either  an  absolutely  good  egg 
for  breakfast,  or  no  egg  at  all.     One  that  is  par- 


92  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

tially  good,  or  on  the  line  between  goodness  and 
badness,  we  send  back  as  altogether  bad.  If 
there  is  a  little  round  hole  in  a  pane  of  glass,  cut 
by  a  bullet,  we  reject  the  whole  pane  as  imperfect, 
just  as  though  a  big  jagged  hole  had  been  made 
in  it  by  a  brickbat.  We  get  an  echo  of  this  para- 
dox in  the  statement  of  St.  James,  "  For  whoso- 
ever shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  stumble  in 
one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all." 

This  paradox  becomes  plain,  self-evident  truth, 
the  moment  we  admit  the  Stoic  position  that  not 
external  things,  and  their  appeal  to  our  sensibility, 
but  our  internal  attitudes  toward  universal  law, 
are  the  points  on  which  our  virtue  hangs.  Either 
we  intend  to  obey  the  universal  law  of  nature  or 
we  do  not;  and  between  the  intention  of  obedi- 
ence and  the  intention  of  disobedience  there  is  no 
middle  ground. 

Second:  The  wise  man,  the  Stoic  sage,  is  ab- 
solutely perfect,  the  complete  master  of  himself, 
and  rightfully  the  ruler  of  the  world.  If  every- 
thing depends  on  our  thought,  and  our  thought 
is  in  tune  with  the  universal  law,  then  obviously 
we  are  perfect.  Beyond  such  complete  inner 
response  to  the  universal  law  it  is  impossible  for 
man  to  advance. 

Curiously  enough,  the  religious  doctrine  of  per- 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL   BY   LAW  93 

fectionism,  which  often  arises  in  Methodist  circles, 
and  in  such  hoHness  movements  as  have  taken 
their  rise  from  the  influence  of  Methodism,  shows 
this  same  root  in  the  conception  of  law.  Wesley's 
definition  of  sin  is  "the  violation  of  a  known 
law."  If  that  be  all  there  is  of  sin,  then  any  of  us 
who  is  ordinarily  decent  and  conscientious,  may 
boast  of  perfection.  You  can  number  perfec- 
tionists by  tens  of  thousands  on  such  abstract 
terms  as  these.  But  if  sin  be  not  merely  delib- 
erate violation  of  abstract  law ;  if  it  be  failure 
to  fulfil  to  the  highest  degree  the  infinitely  deli- 
cate personal,  domestic,  civic,  and  social  relations 
in  which  we  stand;  then  the  very  notion  of  per- 
fection is  preposterous,  and  the  profession  of  it 
little  less  than  blasphemy.  But  like  the  modem 
religious  perfectionists,  the  Stoics  had  little  con- 
cern for  the  concrete,  individual,  personal  ties 
which  bind  men  and  women  together  in  families, 
societies,  and  states.  Perfection  was  an  easy 
thing,  because  they  had  defined  it  in  such  abstract 
terms.  Still,  though  not  by  any  means  the  whole 
of  virtue  as  deeper  schools  have  apprehended  it, 
it  is  something  to  have  our  inner  motive  abso- 
lutely right,  when  measured  by  the  standard  of 
universal  law.  That  at  least  the  Stoic  professed 
to  have  attained. 


94  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

Third  :  The  Stoic  is  a  citizen  of  the  whole  world. 
Local,  domestic,  national  ties  bind  him  not.  But 
this  is  a  cheap  way  of  gaining  universality,  —  this 
skipping  the  particulars  of  which  the  universal  is 
composed.  To  be  as  much  interested  in  the 
politics  of  Rio  Janeiro  or  Hong  Kong  as  you  are 
in  those  of  the  ward  of  your  own  city  does  not 
mean  much  until  we  know  how  much  you  are 
interested  in  the  politics  of  your  own  ward.  And 
in  the  case  of  the  Stoic  this  interest  was  very 
attenuated.  As  is  usually  the  case,  extension  of 
interest  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  was  purchased  at 
the  cost  of  defective  intensity  close  at  home,  where 
charity  ought  to  begin.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
Stoics  were  very  defective  in  their  standards  of 
citizenship.  Still,  what  the  law  of  justice  de- 
manded, that  they  were  disposed  to  render  to 
every  man ;  and  thus,  though  on  a  very  superficial 
basis,  the  Stoics  laid  the  broad  foundation  of  an 
international  democracy  which  knows  no  limits  of 
colour,  race,  or  stage  of  development.  Though  Stoi- 
cism falls  far  short  of  the  warmth  and  devotion  of 
modern  Christian  missions,  yet  the  early  stage  of 
the  missionary  movement,  in  which  people  were 
interested,  not  in  the  concrete  welfare  of  spe- 
cific peoples,  but  in  vast  aggregates  of  "  souls," 
represented   on  maps,  and  in   diagrams,  bears   a 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  95 

close  resemblance  to  the  Stoic  cosmopolitanism. 
We  have  all  seen  people  who  would  give  and  work 
to  save  the  souls  of  the  heathen,  who  would  never 
under  any  circumstances  think  of  calling  on  the 
neighbour  on  the  same  street  who  chanced  to  be  a 
little  below  their  own  social  circle.  The  soul  of  a 
heathen  is  a  very  abstract  conception;  the  lowly 
neighbour  a  very  concrete  affair.  The  Stoics  are 
not  the  only  people  who  have  deceived  themselves 
with  vast  abstractions. 

VI 

THE  RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  STOICISM 

The  Stoics  had  a  genuine  religion.  The  Epi- 
cureans, too,  had  their  gods,  but  they  never  took 
them  very  seriously.  In  a  world  made  up  of 
atoms  accidentally  grouped  in  transient  relations, 
of  which  countless  accidental  groupings  I  happen 
to  be  one,  there  is  no  room  for  a  real  religious 
relationship.  Consequently  the  Epicurean,  though 
he  amused  himself  with  poetic  pictures  of  gods 
who  led  lives  of  undisturbed  serenity,  unconcerned 
about  the  affairs  of  men,  had  no  consciousness  of 
a  great  spiritual  whole  of  which  he  was  a  part,  or 
of  an  Infinite  Person  to  whom  he  was  personally 
related. 


96  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

To  the  Stoic,  on  the  contrary,  the  round  world 
is  part  of  a  single  universe,  which  holds  all  its 
parts  in  the  grasp  and  guidance  of  one  universal 
law,  determining  each  particular  event.  By  mak- 
ing that  law  of  the  universe  his  own,  the  indi- 
vidual man  at  once  worships  the  all-controlling 
Providence,  and  achieves  his  own  freedom.  For 
the  law  to  which  he  yields  is  at  once  the  law  of  the 
whole  universe,  and  the  law  of  his  own  nature  as  a 
part  of  the  universe.  "We  are  born  subjects," 
exclaims  the  Stoic,  "  but  to  obey  God  is  perfect 
liberty."  "  Everything,"  says  Marcus  Aurelius, 
"  harmonises  with  me  which  is  harmonious  to  thee, 

0  universe.  Nothing  for  me  is  too  early  or  too 
late,  which  is  in  due  time  for  thee." 

A  characteristic  prayer  and  meditation  and  hymn 
will  show  us,  far  better  than  description,  what  this 
Stoic  religion  meant  to  those  who  devoutly  held  it. 
Epictetus  gives  us  this  prayer  of  the  dying  Cynic : 
"  I  stretch  out  my  hands  to  God  and  say :  The 
means  which  I  have  received  from  thee  for  seeing 
thy  administration  of  the  world  and   following  it 

1  have  not  neglected :  I  have  not  dishonoured  thee 
by  my  acts  :  see  how  I  have  used  my  perceptions  : 
have  I  ever  blamed  thee .''  have  I  been  discon- 
tented with  anything  that  happens  or  wished  it  to 
be  otherwise.''     Have  I  wished  to  transgress  the 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  9/ 

relations  of  things  ?  That  thou  hast  given  me  life, 
I  thank  thee  for  what  thou  hast  given  :  so  long  as 
I  have  used  the  things  which  are  thine  I  am  con- 
tent; take  them  back  and  place  them  wherever 
thou  mayest  choose  ;  for  thine  were  all  things,  — 
thou  gavest  them  to  me.  Is  it  not  enough  to 
depart  in  this  state  of  mind,  and  what  life  is  better 
and  more  becoming  than  that  of  a  man  who  is  in 
this  state  of  mind,  and  what  end  is  more  happy  ? " 

He  also  offers  us  this  meditation  on  the  inevi- 
table losses  of  life,  by  which  he  consoles  himself 
with  the  thought  that  all  he  has  is  a  loan  from 
God,  which  these  seeming  losses  but  restore  to  their 
rightful  owner,  who  had  lent  them  to  us  for  a  while. 

"  Never  say  about  anything,  I  have  lost  it ;  but 
say,  I  have  restored  it.  Is  your  child  dead  ?  It 
has  been  restored.  Is  your  wife  dead  ?  She  has 
been  restored.  Has  your  estate  been  taken  from 
you  .•'  Has  not  this  been  also  restored  .-'  '  But  he 
who  has  taken  it  from  me  is  a  bad  man.'  But 
what  is  it  to  you  by  whose  hands  the  giver  de- 
manded it  back  ?  So  long  as  he  may  allow  you, 
take  care  of  it  as  a  thing  which  belongs  to 
another,  as  travellers  do  with  their  inn." 

The  grandest  expression  of  the  Stoic  religion, 
however,  is  found  in  the  hymn  of  Cleanthes.  Else- 
where there  is  too  evident  a  disposition  to   con- 

K 


98  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

descend  to  use  God's  aid  in  keeping  up  the  Stoic 
temper;  with  little  of  outgoing  adoration  for  the 
greatness  and  glory  which  are  in  God  himself. 
But  in  this  grand  hymn  we  have  genuine  reverence, 
devotion,  worship,  praise,  self-surrender,  — in  short, 
that  confession  of  the  glory  of  the  Infinite  by  the 
conscious  weakness  of  the  finite  in  which  the  heart 
of  true  reHgion  everywhere  consists.  Nowhere 
outside  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures 
has  adoration  breathed  itself  in  more  exalted  and 
fervent  strains.  The  hymn  is  addressed  to  Zeus, 
as  the  Stoics  freely  used  the  names  of  the  popular 
gods  to  express  their  own  deeper  meanings. 

HYMN   TO   ZEUS 

"Thee  it  is  lawful  for  all  mortals  to  address. 
For  we  are  Thy  offspring,  and  alone  of  living 
creatures  possess  a  voice  which  is  the  image  of 
reason.  Therefore  I  will  forever  sing  Thee  and 
celebrate  Thy  power.  All  this  universe  rolling 
round  the  earth  obeys  Thee,  and  follows  willingly 
at  Thy  command.  Such  a  minister  hast  Thou 
in  Thy  invincible  hands,  the  two-edged,  flaming, 
vivid  thunderbolt.  O  King,  most  High,  nothing 
is  done  without  Thee,  neither  in  heaven  or  on 
earth,  nor  in  the  sea,  except  what  the  wicked  do 
in  their  foolishness.     Thou  makest  order  out  of 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  99 

disorder,  and  what  is  worthless  becomes  precious 
in  Thy  sight ;  for  Thou  hast  fitted  together  good 
and  evil  into  one,  and  hast  established  one  law 
that  exists  forever.  But  the  wicked  fly  from  Thy 
law,  unhappy  ones,  and  though  they  desire  to 
possess  what  is  good,  yet  they  see  not,  neither  do 
they  hear  the  universal  law  of  God.  If  they 
would  follow  it  with  understanding,  they  might 
have  a  good  life.  But  they  go  astray,  each  after 
his  own  devices,  —  some  vainly  striving  after  repu- 
tation, others  turning  aside  after  gain  excessively, 
others  after  riotous  living  and  wantonness.  Nay, 
but,  O  Zeus,  Giver  of  all  things,  who  dwellest  in 
dark  clouds  and  rulest  over  the  thunder,  deliver 
men  from  their  fooHshness.  Scatter  it  from  their 
souls,  and  grant  them  to  obtain  wisdom,  for  by 
wisdom  Thou  dost  rightly  govern  all  things  ;  that 
being  honoured  we  may  repay  Thee  with  honour, 
singing  Thy  works  without  ceasing,  as  it  is  right 
for  us  to  do.  For  there  is  no  greater  thing  than 
this,  either  for  mortal  men  or  for  the  gods,  to  sing 
rightly  the  universal  law." 

Modern  literature  of  the  nobler  sort  has  many 
a  Stoic  note;  and  we  ought  to  be  able  to  recog- 
nise it  in  its  modern  as  well  as  in  its  ancient 
dress.  The  very  best  brief  expression  of  the  Stoic 
creed  is  found  in  Henley's  Lines  to  R.  T.  H.  B. : — 


100  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

"  Out  of  the  night  that  covers  me, 
Black  as  the  Pit  from  pole  to  pole, 
I  thank  whatever  gods  may  be 
For  my  unconquerable  soul. 

"  In  the  fell  clutch  of  circumstance 
I  have  not  winced  nor  cried  aloud. 
Under  the  bludgeonings  of  chance 
My  head  is  bloody,  but  unbowed. 

**  Beyond  this  place  of  wrath  and  tears 
Looms  but  the  Horror  of  the  shade. 
And  yet  the  menace  of  the  years 
Finds,  and  shall  find  me  unafraid. 

"  It  matters  not  how  strait  the  gate, 
How  charged  with  punishments  the  scroll, 
I  am  the  master  of  my  fate  : 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul." 

The  chief  modern  type  of  Stoicism,  however,  is 
Matthew  Arnold.  His  great  remedy  for  the  ills 
of  which  life  is  so  full  is  stated  in  the  concluding 
lines  of  "  The  Youth  of  Man  "  :  — 

*'  While  the  locks  are  yet  brown  on  thy  head. 
While  the  soul  still  looks  through  thine  eyes, 
While  the  heart  still  pours 
The  mantling  blood  to  thy  cheek, 
Sink,  O  youth,  in  thy  soul ! 
Yearn  to  the  greatness  of  Nature  ; 
Rally  the  good  in  the  depths  of  thyself!" 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  lOI 

VII 

THE  PERMANENT   VALUE   OF   STOICISM 

If  now  we  know  the  two  fundamental  principles 
of  Stoicism,  the  indifference  of  external  circum- 
stance as  compared  with  the  reaction  of  our  own 
thought  upon  it,  and  the  sanctification  of  our 
thought  by  self-surrender  to  the  universal  law ;  and 
if  we  have  learned  to  recognise  these  Stoic  notes 
alike  in  ancient  and  modern  prose  and  poetry,  we 
are  ready  to  discriminate  between  the  good  in  it 
which  we  wish  to  cherish,  and  the  shortcomings  of 
the  system  which  it  is  well  for  us  to  avoid. 

We  can  all  reduce  enormously  our  troubles  and 
vexations  by  bringing  to  bear  upon  them  the  two 
Stoic  formulas.  Toward  material  things,  toward 
impersonal  events  at  least,  we  may  all  with  profit 
put  on  the  Stoic  armour,  or  to  use  the  figure  of  the 
turtle,  which  is  most  expressive  of  the  Stoic  atti- 
tude, we  can  all  draw  the  soft  sensitive  flesh  of  our 
feelings  inside  the  hard  shell  of  resolute  thoughts. 
There  is  a  way  of  looking  at  our  poverty,  our 
plainness  of  feature,  our  lack  of  mental  brilliancy, 
our  humble  social  estate,  our  unpopularity,  our 
physical  ailments,  which,  instead  of  making  us 
miserable,  will  make  us  modest,  contented,  cheer- 


\ 


I02  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

ful,   serene.      The   mistakes   that   we   make,   the 
rp    ;  foolish  words  we  say,  the  unfortunate  investments 
J    I  into  which  we  get  drawn,  the  failures  we  experi- 
■^^   I  ence,  all  may  be  transformed  by  the  Stoic  formula 
Cj  I  into  spurs  to  greater  effort  and  stimulus  to  wiser 
deeds  in  days  to  come.     Simply  to  shift  the  em- 
phasis from  the  dead   external   fact  beyond  our 
control,  to  the  live  option  which  always  presents 
itself  within ;  and  to  know  that  the  circumstance 
that  can  make  us  miserable  simply  does  not  exist, 
unless  it  exists  by  our  consent  within  our  own 
minds;  —  this  is  a  lesson  well  worth  spending  an 
hour  with  the  Stoics  to  learn  once  for  all. 

And  the  other  aspect  of  their  doctrine,  its  quasi- 
religious  side,  though  not  by  any  means  the  last 
word  about  religion,  is  a  valuable  first  lesson  in 
the  reality  of  religion.  To  know  that  the  univer- 
sal law  is  everywhere,  and  that  its  will  may  in 
every  circumstance  be  done ;  to  measure  the  petty 
perturbations  of  our  little  lives  by  the  vast  orbits 
of  natural  forces  moving  according  to  beneficent 
and  unchanging  law ;  when  we  come  out  of  the 
exciting  political  meeting,  or  the  roar  of  the  stock- 
exchange,  to  look  up  at  the  calm  stars  and  the 
tranquil  skies  and  hear  them  say  to  us,  "  So  hot, 
my  little  man";  —  this  elevation  of  our  individual 
lives  by  the  reverent  contemplation  of  the  universe 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  IO3 

and  its  unswerving  laws,  is  something  which  we 
may  all  learn  with  profit  from  the  old  Stoic  masters. 
Business,  house-keeping,  school-teaching,  profes- 
sional life,  politics,  society,  would  all  be  more 
noble  and  dignified  if  we  could  bring  to  them  every 
now  and  then  a  touch  of  this  Stoic  strength  and 
calm. 

Criticism,  complaint,  fault-finding,  malicious 
scandal,  unpopularity,  and  all  the  shafts  of  the 
censorious  are  impotent  to  slay  or  even  wound  the 
spirit  of  the  Stoic.  If  these  criticisms  are  true, 
they  are  welcomed  as  aids  in  the  discovery  of 
faults  which  are  to  be  frankly  faced,  and  strenu- 
ously overcome.  If  they  are  false,  unfounded,  due 
to  the  querulousness  or  jealousy  of  the  critic  rather 
than  to  any  fault  of  the  Stoic,  then  he  feels  only 
contempt  for  the  criticisms  and  pity  for  the  poor 
misguided  critic.  The  true  Stoic  can  be  the  serene 
husband  of  a  scolding  shrew  of  a  wife ;  the  com- 
placent representative  of  dissatisfied  and  enraged 
constituents ;  maintain  unrufifled  equanimity  when 
cut  by  his  aristocratic  acquaintances  and  excluded 
from  the  most  select  social  circles :  for  he  carries' 
the  only  valid  standard  of  social  measurement  un-, 
der  his  own  hat,  and  needs  not  the  adoration  of  his 
wife,  the  cheers  of  his  constituents,  the  cards  and 
invitations,  the  nods  and  smiles  of  the  four  hun- 


104  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

dred  to  assure  him  of  his  dignity  and  worth.  If 
he  is  an  author,  it  does  not  trouble  him  that  his 
books  are  unsold,  unread,  uncut.  If  the  many 
could  appreciate  him,  he  would  have  to  be  one  of 
themselves,  and  then  there  would  be  no  use  in  his 
trying  to  instruct  them.  His  book  is  what  the 
universal  law  gave  him  to  say,  and  decreed  that  it 
should  be;  and  whether  there  be  many  or  few  to 
whom  the  universal  law  has  revealed  the  same 
truth,  and  granted  power  to  appreciate  it,  is  the 
concern  of  the  universal,  not  of  himself,  the  indi- 
vidual author.  Again,  if  he  is  in  poor  health, 
weary,  exhausted,  if  each  stroke  of  work  must  be 
wrought  in  agony  and  pain,  —  that,  too,  is  decreed 
for  him  by  those  just  laws  which  he  or  his  ances- 
tors have  blindly  violated ;  and  he  will  accept  even 
this  dictate  of  the  universal  law  as  just  and 
good :  he  will  not  suffer  these  trifling  incidental 
pains  and  aches  to  diminish  by  one  jot  the  output 
of  his  hand  or  brain.  When  disillusion  and  dis- 
appointment overtake  him ;  when  the  things  his 
youth  had  sighed  for  finally  take  themselves  for- 
ever out  of  his  reach ;  when  he  sees  clearly  that 
only  a  few  more  years  remain  to  him,  and  those 
must  be  composed  of  the  same  monotonous  round 
of  humdrum  details,  duties  that  have  lost  the 
charm  of  novelty,  functions  that  have  long  since 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL   BY  LAW  105 

been  relegated  to  the  unconsciousness  of  habit, 
vexations  that  have  been  endured  a  thousand 
times,  petty  pleasures  that  have  long  since  lost 
their  zest :  even  then  the  Stoic  says  that  this,  too, 
is  part  of  the  universal  programme,  and  must  be  ac- 
,  cepted  resignedly.  If  there  is  little  that  nature 
rt^  has  left  to  give  him  for  which  he  cares,  yet  he  can 
return  to  her  the  tribute  of  an  obedient  will  and  a 
contented  mind :  if  he  can  expect  little  from  the 
world,  he  can  contribute  something  to  it;  and  so  to 
the  last  he  maintains,  — 

"  One  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts, 
Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will 
To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield." 

When  there  is  hard  work  to  be  done,  to  which 
there  is  no  pleasure,  no  honour,  no   emolument 
attached;    when   there   are   evils  to   be   rebuked 
which  will  bring  down  the  wrath  and  vengeance 
of  the  powers  that  be  on  him  who  exposes  the 
wrong;  when  there  are  poor  relatives  to  be  sup- 
ported, and  slights  to  be  endured,  and  injustice  to 
be  borne,  it  is  well  for  us  all  to  know  this  Stoic 
formula,  and  fortify  our  souls  behind  its  impene- 
trable walls.     To  consider  not  what  happens  to  us, 
i  but  how  we  react  upon  it ;   to  measure  good  in 
/  terms  not  of  sensuous  pleasure,  but  of  mental  atti- 
\  tude ;  to  know  that  if  we  are  for  the  universal  law, 


I06  FROM   EPICURUS    TO    CHRIST 

it  matters  not  how  many  things  may  be  against 
us ;  to  rest  assured  that  there  can  be  no  circum- 
stance or  condition  in  which  this  law  cannot  be 
done  by  us,  and  therefore  no  situation  of  which 
we  cannot  be  more  than  master,  through  implicit 
obedience  to  the  great  law  that  governs  all,  —  this 
,is  the  stern  consolation  of  Stoicism  ;  and  there  are 
A  few  of  us  so  happily  situated  in  all  respects  that 
V*  jthere  do  not  come  to  us  times  when  such  a  con- 
VN^/viction  is  a  defence  and  refuge  for  our  souls.     Be- 
yond and  above  Stoicism  we  shall  try  to  climb  in 
later  chapters.     But  below  Stoicism  one  may  not 
suffer  his  life  to  fall,  if  he  would  escape  the  fear- 
ful hells  of  depression,  despair,  and  melancholia. 
As  we  lightly  send  back  across  the  centuries  our 
thanks  to  Epicurus   for  teaching  us  to  prize  at 
/  their  true  worth  health  and  the  good  things  of 
y  life,  so   let  us   reverently  bow  before  the   Stoic 
'  sages,  who   taught   us   the   secret  of   that   hardy 
\  virtue  which  bears  with  fortitude  hfe's  inevitable 
Jills. 

VIII 

THE    DEFECTS    OF    STOICISM 

Why  we  cannot  rest  in  Stoicism  as  our  final 
guide  to  life,  the  mere  statement  of  their  doc- 
trine must  have  made  clear  to  every  one ;   and  in 


STOIC   SELF-CONTROL    BY   LAW  IO7 

calling  attention  to  its  limitations  I  shall  only 
be  saying  for  the  reader  what  he  has  been  saying 
to  himself  all  through  the  chapter.  It  may  be  well 
enough  to  treat  things  as  indifferent,  and  work  them 
over  into  such  mental  combinations  as  best  serve  our 
rational  interests.  To  treat  persons  in  that  way, 
however,  to  make  them  mere  pawns  in  the  game 
which  reason  plays,  is  heartless,  monstrous.  The 
affections  are  as  essential  to  man  as  his  reason. 
It  is  a  poor  substitute  for  the  warm,  sweet,  tender 
ties  that  bind  together  husband  and  wife,  parent 
and  child,  friend  and  friend,  —  this  freezing  of 
people  together  through  their  common  relation 
to  the  universal  law.  I  suppose  that  is  why,  in 
all  the  history  of  Stoicism,  though  college  girls 
usually  have  a  period  of  flirting  with  the  Stoic 
melancholy  of  Matthew  Arnold,  no  woman  was 
ever  known  to  be  a  consistent  and  steadfast  Stoic. 
Indeed  a  Stoic  woman  is  a  contradiction  in  terms. 
One  might  as  well  talk  of  a  warm  iceberg,  or  soft 
granite,  or  sweet  vinegar.  Stoicism  is  something 
of  which  men,  unmarried  or  badly  married  men  at 
that,  have  an  absolute  monopoly./  *P  ) 

Again  if  its  disregard  of  particulars  and  indi- 
viduals is  cold  and  hard,  its  attempted  substitute 
of  abstract,  vague  universality  is  a  bit  absurd. 
Sometimes  the   lighter   mood   of   caricature   best 


I08  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

brings  out  the  weaknesses  that  are  concealed  in 
grave  systems  when  taken  too  seriously.  Mr.  W. 
S.  Gilbert  has  put  the  dash  of  absurdity  there  is 
in  the  Stoic  doctrines  so  convincingly  that  his 
lines  may  serve  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the 
inherent  weakness  of  the  Stoic  position  better 
than  more  formal  criticism.     They  are  addressed 

TO  THE   TERRESTRIAL   GLOBE 

"  Roll  on,  thou  ball,  roll  on ; 
Through  pathless  realms  of  space 

Roll  on. 
What  though  Tm  in  a  sorry  case? 
What  though  I  cannot  pay  my  bills? 
What  though  I  suffer  toothache's  ills? 
What  though  I  swallow  countless  pills? 
Never  you  mind! 
Roll  on. 

"  Roll  on,  thou  ball,  roll  on ; 
Through  seas  of  inky  air 

Roll  on. 
It's  true  I've  got  no  shirts  to  wear ; 
It's  true  my  butcher's  bills  are  due ; 
It's  true  my  prospects  all  look  blue  — 
But  don't  let  that  unsettle  you  — 

Never  you  mind! 
Roll  on. 
(It  rolls  on.)  " 

The   incompleteness   of    the   Stoic    position   is 
precisely  this  tendency  to  slight  and  ignore  the 


STOIC    SELF-CONTROL    BY    LAW  IO9 

external  conditions  out  of  which  life  is  made. 
Its  God  is  fate.  Instead  of  a  living,  loving  will, 
manifest  in  the  struggle  with  present  conditions, 
Stoicism  sees  only  an  impersonal  law,  rigid,  fixed, 
fatal,  unalterable,  unimprovable,  uncompanionable. 
Man's  only  freedom  lies  in  unconditional  sur- 
render to  what  was  long  ago  decreed.  Of  glad 
and  original  cooperation  with  its  beneficent  de- 
signs, thus  helping  to  make  the  world  happier 
and  better  than  it  could  have  been  had  not  the 
universal  will  found  and  chosen  just  this  indi- 
vidual me,  to  work  freely  for  its  improvement. 
Stoicism  knows  nothing.  Its  satisfaction  is  staked 
on  a  dead  law  to  be  obeyed,  not  a  live  will  to 
be  loved.  Its  ideal  is  a  monotonous  identity  of 
law-abiding  agents  who  differ  from  each  other 
chiefly  in  the  names  by  which  they  chance  to  be 
designated.  It  has  no  place  for  the  development 
of  rich  and  varied  individuality  in  each  through 
intense,  passionate  devotion  to  other  individuals 
as  widely  different  as  age,  sex,  training,  and  tem- 
perament can  make  them.  Before  we  find  the 
perfect  guidance  of  life  we  must  look  beyond 
the  Stoic  as  well  as  the  Epicurean,  to  Plato,  to 
Aristotle,  and,  above  all,  to  Jesus  Christ. 


^^^r^  h^^U^h 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  PLATONIC  SUBORDINATION  OF  LOWER  TO 
HIGHER 


THE  NATURE  OF  VIRTUE 

Epicureanism  tells  us  how  to  gain  pleasure; 
Stoicism  tells  us  how  to  bear  pain.  But  life  is 
not  so  simple  as  these  systems  assume.  It  is  not 
merely  the  problem  of  getting  all  the  pleasure  we 
can ;  nor  of  taking  pain  in  such  wise  that  it  does  not 
hurt.  It  is  a  question  of  the  worth  of  the  things 
in  which  we  find  our  pleasure,  and  the  relative 
values  of  the  things  we  suffer  for.  Plato  squarely 
attacks  that  larger  problem.  He  says  that  the 
Epicurean  is  like  a  musician  who  tunes  his  violin 
as  much  as  he  can  without  breaking  the  strings. 
The  wise  musician,  on  the  contrary,  recognises 
that  the  tuning  is  merely  incidental  to  the  music ; 
and  that  when  you  have  tuned  it  up  to  a  certain 
point,  it  is  worse  than  useless  to  go  on  tuning  it 
any  more.  Just  as  the  tuning  is  for  the  sake  of 
the  music,  and  when  you  have  reached  a  point 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  III 

where  the  instrument  gives  perfect  music,  you 
must  stop  the  tuning  and  begin  to  play;  so 
when  you  have  brought  any  particular  pleasure, 
say  that  of  eating,  up  to  a  certain  point,  you 
must  stop  eating,  and  begin  to  live  the  life  for 
the  sake  of  which  you  eat.  To  the  Stoic  Plato 
gives  a  similar  answer.  The  Stoic,  he  says,  is 
like  a  physician  who  gives  his  patient  all  the 
medicine  he  can,  and  prides  himself  on  being  a 
better  physician  than  others  because  he  gives  his 
patients  bigger  doses,  and  more  of  them.  The 
wise  physician  gives  medicine  up  to  a  certain 
point,  and  then  stops.  That  point  is  determined 
by  the  health,  which  the  medicine  is  given  to 
promote.  Precisely  so,  it  is  foolish  to  bear  all 
the  pain  we  can,  and  boast  ourselves  of  our  ability 
to  swallow  big  doses  of  tribulation  and  pronounce 
it  good.  The  wise  man  will  bear  pain  up  to  a 
certain  point ;  and  when  he  reaches  that  limit,  he 
will  stop.  What  is  the  point  ?  Where  is  the 
limit  ?  Virtue  is  the  point  up  to  which  the  bear- 
ing of  pain  is  good,  the  limit  beyond  which  the 
bearing  of  pain  becomes  an  evil.  Virtue,  then, 
is  the  supreme  good,  and  makes  everything  that 
furthers  it,  whether  pleasurable  or  painful,  good. 
Virtue  makes  everything  that  hinders  it,  whether 
pleasurable  or  painful,  bad.     What,  then,  is  virtue  ? 


112  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

In  what  does  this  priceless  pearl  consist?  We 
have  our  two  analogies.  Virtue  is  to  pleasure 
what  the  music  is  to  the  tuning  of  the  instrument. 
Just  as  the  perfection  of  the  music  proves  the 
excellence  of  the  tuning,  so  the  perfection  of 
virtue  justifies  the  particular  pleasures  we  enjoy. 
Virtue  stands  related  to  the  endurance  of  pain, 
as  health  stands  related  to  the  taking  of  medicine. 
The  perfection  of  health  proves  that,  however 
distasteful  the  medicine  may  be,  it  is  neverthe- 
less good;  and  any  imperfection  of  health  that 
may  result  from  either  too  much  or  too  little 
medicine  shows  that  in  the  quantity  taken  the 
medicine  was  bad  for  us.  Precisely  so  pain  is 
good  for  us  up  to  the  point  where  virtue  requires 
it.  Below  or  above  that  point,  pain  becomes  an 
evil. 

Plato  spared  no  pains  to  disentangle  the  question 
of  virtue  from  its  complications  with  rewards  and 
penalties,  pleasures  and  pains.  As  the  virtue  of  a 
violin  is  not  in  its  carving  or  polish,  but  in  the 
music  it  produces ;  as  the  virtue  of  medicine  is  not 
in  its  sweetness  or  its  absence  of  bitterness,  so  the 
virtue  of  man  has  primarily  nothing  to  do  with 
rewards  and  penalties,  pleasures  or  pains.  In  our 
study  of  virtue,  he  says,  we  must  strip  it  naked  of 
all  rewards,  honours,  and  emoluments ;  indeed  we 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  II3 

must  go  farther  and  even  dress  it  up  in  the  outer 
habiliments  of  vice;  we  must  make  the  virtuous 
man  poor,  persecuted,  forsaken,  unpopular,  dis- 
trusted, reviled,  and  condemned.  Then  we  may 
be  able  to  see  what  there  is  in  virtue  which,  in 
every  conceivable  circumstance,  makes  it  superior 
to  vice.  He  makes  one  of  his  characters  in  the 
Republic  complain  that :  "  No  one  has  ever  ade- 
quately described  either  in  verse  or  prose  the 
true  essential  nature  of  either  righteousness  or 
unrighteousness  immanent  in  the  soul,  and  invisi- 
ble to  any  human  or  divine  eye ;  or  shown  that  of 
all  the  things  of  a  man's  soul  which  he  has  within 
him,  righteousness  is  the  greatest  good,  and  un- 
righteousness the  greatest  evil.  Therefore  I  say, 
not  only  prove  to  us  that  righteousness  is  better 
than  unrighteousness,  but  show  what  either  of 
them  do  to  the  possessors  of  them,  which  makes 
the  one  to  be  good  and  the  other  evil,  whether 
seen  or  unseen  by  gods  and  men."  Accordingly 
he  attributes  to  the  unrighteous  man  skill  to  win 
a  reputation  for  righteousness,  even  while  acting 
most  unrighteously.  He  clothes  him  with  power 
and  glory,  and  fame,  and  family,  and  influence ; 
fills  his  life  with  delights;  surrounds  him  with 
friends ;  cushions  him  in  ease  and  security.  Over 
against  this  man  who  is  really  unrighteous,  but 


114  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

has  all  the  advantages  that  come  from  being 
supposed  to  be  righteous,  he  sets  the  man  who  is' 
really  righteous,  and  clothes  him  with  all  the  dis- 
abilities which  come  from  being  supposed  to  be 
unrighteous. .  "  Let  him  be  scourged  and  racked ; 
let  him  have  his  eyes  burnt  out,  and  finally,  after 
suffering  every  kind  of  evil,  let  him  be  impaled." 
Then,  says  Plato,  when  both  have  reached  the  ut- 
termost extreme,  the  one  of  righteousness  treated 
shamefully  and  cruelly,  the  other  of  unrighteous- 
ness treated  honourably  and  obsequiously,  let  judg- 
ment be  given  which  of  them  is  the  happier  of  the 
two.  Translating  the  language  of  the  "  Gorgias  " 
and  the  "  Republic  "  into  modern  equivalents :  Who 
would  we  rather  be,  a  man  who  by  successful 
manipulation  of  dishonest  financial  schemes  had 
come  to  be  a  millionnaire,  the  mayor  of  his  city, 
the  pillar  of  the  church,  the  ornament  of  the  best 
society,  the  Senator  from  his  state,  or  the  Ambas- 
sador of  his  country  at  a  European  Court;  or  a 
man  who  in  consequence  of  his  integrity  had  won 
the  enmity  of  evil  men  in  power,  and  been  sent  in 
disgrace  to  State  prison ;  a  man  whom  no  one 
would  speak  to ;  whom  his  best  friends  had  de- 
serted, whose  own  children  were  being  brought  up 
to  reproach  him  ?  Which  of  the  two  men  would 
we  rather  be  ?     And  we  must  not  introduce  any 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  II5 

consideration  of  reversals  hereafter.  Supposing 
that  death  ends  all,  and  that  there  is  no  God  to 
reverse  the  decisions  of  men ;  suppose  these  two 
men  were  to  die  as  they  lived,  without  hope  of 
resurrection;  which  of  the  two  would  we  rather 
be  for  the  next  forty  years  of  our  lives,  assuming 
that  after  that  there  is  nothing  ? 

Plato  in  a  myth  puts  the  case  even  more 
strongly  than  this.  Gyges,  a  shepherd  and  ser- 
vant of  the  king  of  Lydia,  found  a  gold  ring  which 
had  the  remarkable  property  of  making  its  wearer 
visible  when  he  turned  the  collet  one  way,  and  in- 
visible when  he  turned  it  the  other  way.  Being 
astonished  at  this,  he  made  several  trials  of  the 
ring,  always  with  the  same  result ;  when  he  turned 
the  collet  inwards  he  became  invisible,  when  out- 
wards he  reappeared.  Perceiving  this  he  imme- 
diately contrived  to  be  chosen  messenger  to  the 
court,  where  he  no  sooner  arrived  than  he  seduced 
the  queen,  and  with  her  help  conspired  against 
the  king  and  slew  him,  and  took  the  kingdom. 
Plato  asks  us  what  we  should  do  if  we  had  such  a 
ring.  We  could  do  anything  we  pleased  and  no 
one  would  be  the  wiser.  We  could  become  invisi- 
ble, out  of  the  reach  of  external  consequences,  the 
instant  our  deed  was  done.  Would  we,  with  such 
a  ring  on  our  finger,  stand  fast  in  righteousness  ? 


Il6  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

Could  we  trust  ourselves  to  wear  that  ring  night 
and  day  ?  Would  we  feel  safe  if  we  knew  that 
our  next-door  neighbour,  even  our  most  intimate 
friend,  had  such  a  ring,  and  could  do  just  what 
he  pleased  to  us,  and  yet  never  get  caught? 
Can  we  tell  why  a  man  with  such  a  ring  on  his 
finger  should  not  do  any  unjust,  unkind,  impure, 
or  dishonourable  deed  ? 

II 

RIGHTEOUSNESS  WRIT  LARGE 

The  Republic  is  Plato's  answer  to  this  question. 
Why,  you  may  ask,  should  he  give  us  a  treatise  on 
politics  in  answer  to  a  question  of  personal  charac- 
ter? Because  the  state  is  simply  the  individual 
writ  large,  and  as  we  can  read  large  letters  more 
easily  than  small  letters,  we  shall  get  at  the  princi- 
ple of  righteousness  more  readily  if  we  first  con- 
sider what  it  is  in  the  large  letters  of  the  state. 
In  presenting  this  analogy  of  the  state  I  shall 
freely  translate  Plato's  teachings  into  their  mod- 
ern equivalent.  What,  then,  is  the  difference  be- 
tween a  righteous  and  unrighteous  state  ? 

An  unrighteous  state  is  one  in  which  the  work- 
ing-men in  each  industry  are  organised  into  a 
union  which  uses  its  power  to  force  the  wages  of 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  II7 

its  members  up  to  an  exorbitant  level,  and  uses 
intimidation  and  violence  to  prevent  any  one  else 
from  working  for  less  or  producing  more  than  the 
standards  fixed  by  the  union ;  it  is  a  state  in 
which  the  owners  of  capital,  in  each  line  of  indus- 
try, combine  into  overcapitalised  trusts  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  small  sums  which  they 
put  into  the  business,  and  the  larger  sums  which 
they  do  not  put  in  at  all,  except  on  paper, 
earn  exorbitant  dividends  at  the  expense  of  the 
public ;  it  is  a  state  in  which  the  politicians  are  in 
politics  for  their  pockets,  using  the  opportunities 
for  advantageous  contracts  which  offices  afford, 
and  the  opportunities  for  legislation  in  favour  of 
private  schemes,  to  enrich  themselves  out  of  the 
public  purse ;  it  is  a  state  in  which  the  police  in- 
timidate the  other  citizens,  and  sell  permission  to 
commit  crime  to  the  highest  bidder ;  it  is  a  state  in 
which  the  scholars  concern  themselves  exclusively 
about  their  own  special  and  technical  interests,  and 
as  long  as  the  institutions  with  which  they  are  con- 
nected are  supported  by  the  gifts  of  rich  men, 
care  little  how  the  poor  are  oppressed  and  the 
many  are  made  to  suffer  by  the  corrupt  use  of 
wealth  and  the  selfish  misuse  of  power.  Such  is 
the  unrighteous  state.  And  wherein  does  its  un- 
righteousness consist.?     Obviously  in  the  fact  that 


Il8  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

each  of  the  great  classes  in  the  state  —  working- 
men,  capitalists,  police,  politicians,  scholars  —  are 
living  exclusively  for  themselves  and  are  ready 
to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  community  as  a 
whole  to  their  private  interests.  Now  a  state 
which  should  be  completely  unrighteous,  in  which 
everybody  should  succeed  in  carrying  out  his  own 
selfish  interests  at  the  expense  of  everybody  else, 
would  be  intolerable.  United  action  would  be 
impossible.  No  one  would  wish  to  live  in  such 
a  state.  There  must  be  honour  even  among 
thieves ;  otherwise  stealing  could  not  be  success- 
ful on  any  considerable  scale.  The  trouble  with  it 
is  that  each  part  is  arrayed  in  antagonism  against 
every  other  part,  and  the  whole  is  sacrificed  to 
the  supposed  interests  of  its  constituent  members. 
What,  then,  in  contrast  to  this  would  be  a 
righteous  state  .^  It  would  be  a  state  in  which 
each  of  these  classes  fulfils  its  part  well,  with  a 
view  to  the  good  of  the  whole.  It  would  be 
a  state  where  labour  would  be  organised  into 
unions,  which  would  not  insist  on  having  the 
greatest  possible  wages  for  the  least  possible 
work,  but  which  would  maintain  a  high  standard 
of  eflficiency,  and  intelligence,  and  character  in 
the  members,  with  a  view  to  doing  the  best  pos- 
sible work  in  their  trade,  at  such  wages  as  the 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 19 

resources  and  needs  of  the  community,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  normal  action  of  demand  and  supply, 
would  warrant.  It  would  be  a  state  in  which  the 
capitalists  would  organise  their  business  in  such 
a  way  that  they  might  invite  public  inspection  of 
the  relation  between  the  capital,  enterprise,  skill, 
economy,  and  industry  expended,  and  the  prices 
they  charge  for  commodities  furnished  and  services 
rendered.  It  would  be  a  state  in  which  the  police 
would  maintain  that  order  and  law  which  is  the 
equal  interest  of  the  rich  and  poor  alike.  It  would 
be  a  state  in  which  the  men  in  political  offices 
would  use  their  official  positions  and  influence  for 
the  protection  of  the  lives  and  promotion  of  the 
interests  of  the  whole  people  whom  they  represent 
and  profess  to  serve.  It  would  be  a  state  in  which 
the  colleges  and  universities  would  be  intensely 
alive  to  economic,  social,  and  public  questions,  and 
devote  their  learning  to  the  maintenance  of  health- 
ful material  conditions,  just  distribution  of  wealth, 
sound  morals,  and  wise  determination  of  public 
policy. 

Wherein,  then,  does  the  difference  between  an 
unrighteous  and  a  righteous  state  consist .?  Simply 
in  this  —  that  in  the  unrighteous  state  each  class 
in  the  community  is  playing  for  its  own  hand  and 
regarding  the  community  as  a  mere  means  to  its 


120  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

own  selfish  interests  as  the  supreme  end,  —  while 
a  righteous  state  on  the  contrary  is  one  in  which 
each  class  in  the  community  is  doing  its  own 
work  as  economically  and  efficiently  as  possible, 
with  a  view  to  the  interests  of  the  community  as 
a  whole.  In  the  unrighteous  state  the  whole  is 
subordinated  to  each  separate  part;  in  the  right- 
eous state  each  part  is  subordinated  to  the  com- 
mon interests  of  the  whole.  If,  then,  we  ask  as 
did  Adeimantus  in  the  Republic,  "Where,  then, 
is  righteousness,  and  in  which  particular  part  of 
the  state  is  it  to  be  found,"  our  answer  will  be 
that  given  by  Socrates,  "  that  each  individual 
man  shall  be  put  to  that  use  for  which  nature 
designs  him,  and  every  man  will  do  his  own 
business  so  that  the  whole  city  will  be  not  many 
but  one."  Righteousness,  then,  in  the  state 
consists  in  having  each  class  mind  its  own 
business  with  a  view  to  the  good  of  the  whole. 
On  this,  which  is  Plato's  fundamental  principle, 
we  can  all  agree. 

As  to  the  method  by  which  the  righteous  state 
is  to  be  brought  about  probably  we  should  all  pro- 
foundly differ  from  him.  His  method  for  secur- 
ing the  subordination  of  what  he  calls  the  lower 
class  of  society  to  what  he  calls  the  higher  class 
is  that  of  repression,  force,  and  fraud.     The  obe- 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  121 

dience  of  the  working-men  is  to  be  secured  by 
intimidation;  the  devotion  of  the  higher  classes 
is  to  be  secured  partly  by  suppression  of  natural 
instincts  and  interests,  partly  by  an  elaborate  and 
prolonged  education.  The  rulers  are  to  have  no 
property  and  no  wives  and  families  that  they  can 
call  their  own.  He  attempts  to  get  devotion  to 
the  whole  by  suppressing  those  more  individual 
and  special  forms  of  devotion  which  spring  from 
private  property  and  family  affection.  In  all 
these  details  of  his  scheme  we  must  frankly  rec- 
ognise that  Plato  was  profoundly  wrong.  The 
working  classes  cannot  and  ought  not  to  be 
driven  like  dumb  cattle  to  their  tasks  by  a  force 
external  to  themselves.  The  ruling  class,  the 
scholars  and  statesmen,  can  never  be  successfully 
trained  for  disinterested  public  life  by  taking 
away  from  them  those  fundamental  interests  and 
affections  out  of  which,  in  the  long  run,  all  public 
spirit  takes  its  rise  and  draws  its  inspiration.  In 
opposition  to  this  communism  based  on  repression 
and  suppression  by  force  and  fraud,  the  modern 
democracy  sets  a  community  of  interest  and  a 
devotion  of  personal  resources,  be  they  great  or 
small,  to  the  common  good  on  the  part  of  every 
citizen  of  every  class.  The  utter  inadequacy  and 
impracticability  of  the  details  of   Plato's  commu- 


122  FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

nistic  schemes  about  the  wives  and  property  of  his 
ruling  class  should  not  blind  us  to  the  profound 
truth  of  his  essential  definition  of  righteousness 
in  a  state:  That  each  class  shall  "do  the  work 
for  which  they  draw  the  wage"  with  a  view  to 
the  effect  it  will  have,  not  on  themselves  alone, 
but  primarily  on  the  welfare  of  the  whole  state, 
of  which  each  class  is  a  serving  and  contributing 
member.  This  essential  truth  of  Plato  our  mod- 
ern democracy  has  taken  up.  The  difference  is 
that,  while  Plato  proposed  to  have  intelligence  and 
authority  in  one,  and  obedience  and  manual 
labour  in  another  class,  the  problem  of  modern 
democracy  is  to  give  an  intelligent  and  public- 
spirited  outlook  to  the  working-man,  and  a 
spirit  of  honest  work  to  the  scholar  and  the 
statesman. 

The  defect  of  Plato  lies  in  the  external  arrange- 
ments by  which  he  proposed  to  secure  the  right 
relation  of  parts  to  the  whole.  His  measures  for 
securing  this  subordination  were  partly  material 
and  physical,  partly  visionary  and  unnatural, 
where  ours  must  be  natural,  social,  intellectual, 
and  spiritual.  But  he  did  lay  down  for  all  time 
the  great  principle  that  the  due  subordination  of 
the  parts  to  the  whole,  of  the  members  to  the 
organism,  of  the  classes  to  society,  of  individuals 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  123 

to  the  state  is  the  essence  of  righteousness  in  a 
state,  and  an  indispensable  condition  of  political 
well-being. 

Ill 

THE  CARDINAL  VIRTUES 

Righteousness  in  a  state  then  consists  in  each 
class  minding  its  own  business,  and  performing  its 
specific  function  for  the  good  of  the  state  as  a 
whole.  Righteousness  in  the  individual  is  pre- 
cisely the  same  thing.  There  are  three  grand  de- 
partments of  each  man's  life:  his  appetites,  his 
spirit,  and  his  reason.  Neither  of  these  is  good 
or  bad  in  itself.  Neither  of  them  should  be  per- 
mitted to  set  up  housekeeping  on  its  own  account. 
Any  one  of  them  is  bad  if  it  acts  for  itself  alone, 
regardless  of  the  interests  of  the  self  as  a  whole. 
Let  us  take  up  these  departments  in  order,  and 
see  wherein  the  vice  and  the  virtue  of  each  con- 
sists. First  the  appetites,  which  in  the  individual 
correspond  to  the  working  class  in  the  state. 

Let  us  take  eating  as  a  specimen,  remembering, 
however,  that  everything  we  say  about  the  appe- 
tite for  food  is  equally  true  of  all  the  other  ele- 
mentary appetites,  such  as  those  that  deal  with 
drink,  sex,  dress,  property,  amusement,  and  the 
like.     The   Epicurean  said  they  are  all  good  if 


124  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

they  do  not  clash  and  contradict  each  other.  The 
Stoic  implied  that  they  are  all,  if  not  positively 
bad,  at  least  so  low  and  unimportant  that  the  wise 
man  will  not  pay  much  attention  to  them.  Plato 
says  they  are  all  good  in  their  place,  and  that  they 
are  all  bad  out  of  their  place.  What,  then,  is  their 
place?  It  is  one  of  subordination  and  service  to 
the  self  as  a  whole.  Which  is  the  better  break- 
fast: a  half  pound  of  beefsteak,  with  fried  po- 
tatoes, an  omelette,  some  griddle  cakes  and 
maple  syrup,  with  a  doughnut  or  two,  and  a  gen- 
erous piece  of  mince  pie.?  or  a  little  fruit  and  a 
cereal,  a  roll,  and  a  couple  of  eggs  ? 

Intrinsically  the  first  breakfast  is,  if  anything, 
better  than  the  second.  There  is  more  of  it.  It 
offers  greater  variety.  It  takes  longer  to  eat  it. 
It  will  stay  by  you  longer.  If  you  are  at  a  hotel 
conducted  on  the  American  plan,  you  are  getting 
more  for  your  money. 

Righteousness,  however,  is  concerned  with  none 
of  these  considerations.  What  makes  one  break- 
fast better  than  the  other  is  the  way  it  fits  into 
one's  life  as  a  whole.  Which  breakfast  will  en- 
able you  to  do  the  best  forenoon's  work  ?  Which 
one  will  give  you  acute  headache  and  chronic 
dyspepsia?  Immediate  appetite  cannot  answer 
these  questions.     Reason  is  the  only  one  of  our 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  12$ 

three  departments  that  can  tell  us  what  is  good 
for  the  self  as  a  whole.  Now  for  most  people 
in  ordinary  circumstances,  reason  prescribes  the 
second  breakfast,  or  something  like  it.  The  sec- 
ond breakfast  fits  into  one's  permanent  plan  of 
life.  The  work  to  be  done  in  the  forenoon,  the 
feelings  one  will  have  in  the  afternoon,  the  general 
efficiency  which  we  desire  to  maintain  from  day 
to  day  and  year  to  year,  all  point  to  the  second 
breakfast  as  the  more  adapted  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  self  as  a  whole  throughout  the 
entire  life  history.  If  we  eat  the  first  breakfast, 
appetite  rules  and  reason  is  thrust  into  subjection. 
The  lower  has  conquered  the  higher ;  the  part  has 
domineered  the  whole.  To  eat  such  a  breakfast, 
for  ninety-nine  men  out  of  every  hundred,  would 
be  gluttony.  Yet,  though  eating  it  is  vicious,  the 
fault  is  not  in  the  breakfast,  not  in  the  hunger  for 
it;  but  in  the  fact  that  the  appetite  had  its  own 
way,  regardless  of  the  permanent  interests  of  the 
self  as  a  whole ;  and  that  so  far  forth  reason  was 
dethroned,  and  appetite  set  up  as  ruler  in  its 
place.  Indeed  there  are  circumstances  in  which 
the  first  breakfast  would  be  the  right  one  to 
choose.  If  one  were  on  the  borders  of  civilisation, 
setting  out  for  a  long  tramp  through  the  wilder- 
ness, where  every  ounce  of  food  must  be  carried 


126  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

on  his  back,  and  no  more  fresh  meat  and  home  cook- 
ing could  be  expected  for  several  days,  even  rea- 
son herself  might  prescribe  the  first  breakfast  as 
more  beneficial  to  the  whole  man  than  the  second. 
Precisely  the  same  breakfast  which  is  good  in  one 
set  of  circumstances  becomes  bad  in  another. 
The  raw  appetite  of  hunger  is  obviously  neither 
good  nor  bad.  The  rule  of  appetite  over  reason 
and  the  whole  self,  however,  is  bad  always,  every- 
where, and  for  everybody.  It  is  in  this  rising  up 
of  the  lower  part  of  the  self  against  the  higher, 
and  its  sacrifice  of  the  self  as  a  whole  to  a  par- 
ticular gratification  that  all  vice  consists. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rule  of  reason  over  ap- 
petite, the  gratification  or  the  restraint  of  appetite 
according  as  the  interests  of  the  total  self  require, 
is  always  and  everywhere  and  for  everybody  good. 
This  is  the  essence  of  virtue;  and  the  particular 
form  of  virtue  that  results  from  this  control  of 
the  appetites  by  reason  in  the  interest  of  the  per- 
manent and  total  self  is  temperance  —  the  first  and 
most  fundamental  of  Plato's  cardinal  virtues. 

The  second  element  of  human  nature,  spirit, 
must  be  dealt  with  in  the  same  way.  By  spirit 
Plato  means  the  fighting  element  in  us,  that  which 
prompts  us  to  defend  ourselves,  the  faculty  of 
indignation,  anger,  and  vengeance.     To  make  it 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  12/ 

concrete,  let  us  take  a  case.  Suppose  the  cook 
in  our  kitchen  has  times  of  being  careless,  cross, 
saucy,  wilful,  and  disobedient.  The  spirit  within 
prompts  us  to  upbraid  her,  quarrel  with  her,  and 
when  she  grows  in  turn  more  insolent  and  im- 
pertinent, to  discharge  her.  Is  such  an  exercise 
of  spirit  a  virtuous  act  ?  It  may  be  virtuous,  or  it 
may  be  vicious.  In  this  element,  considered  in 
itself,  there  is  no  more  virtue  or  vice  than  in  appe- 
tite considered  in  itself.  It  is  again  a  question  of 
how  this  particular  act  of  this  particular  side  of 
our  nature  stands  related  to  the  self  as  a  whole. 
What  does  reason  say  ? 

If  I  send  this  cook  away,  shall  I  be  a  long 
while  without  any;  and  after  much  vexation 
probably  put  up  with  another  not  half  so  good.? 
Will  my  household  be  thrown  into  confusion.? 
Will  hospitality  be  made  impossible  ?  Will  the 
working  power  of  the  members  of  my  household 
be  impaired  by  lack  of  well-prepared,  promptly 
served  food  ?  In  the  present  state  of  this  servant 
problem,  all  these  things  and  worse  are  quite 
likely  to  happen.  Consequently  reason  declares 
in  unmistakable  terms  that  the  interests  of  the 
self  as  a  whole  demand  the  retention  of  the  cook. 
But  it  galls  and  frets  our  spirit  to  keep  this  imper- 
tinent, disobedient  servant,  and  hear  her  irritating 


128  FROM   EPICURUS  TO    CHRIST 

words,  and  see  her  aggravating  behaviour.  Never 
mind,  reason  says  to  the  spirited  element  in  us. 
The  spirit  is  not  put  into  us  in  order  that  it  may 
have  a  good  time  all  by  itself  on  its  own  account. 
It  is  put  into  us  to  protect  and  promote  the  inter- 
ests of  the  self  as  a  whole.  You  must  bear  pa- 
tiently with  the  incidental  failings  of  your  cook, 
and  return  soft  answers  to  her  harsh  words;  be- 
cause in  that  way  you  will  best  serve  that  whole 
self  which  your  spirit  is  given  you  to  defend.  In 
ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  a  quarrel  with 
a  cook,  on  such  grounds,  in  present  conditions, 
would  be  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  self  as 
a  whole.  It  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  whole  to  the 
part;  which  as  we  saw  in  the  case  of  appetite  is 
the  essence  of  all  vice.  Only  in  this  case  the  vice 
would  be,  not  intemperance,  but  cowardice,  inabil- 
ity to  bear  a  transient,  trifling  pain  patiently  and 
bravely  for  the  sake  of  the  self  as  a  whole. 

Still,  there  might  be  aggravated  cases  in  which 
the  sharp  reproof,  the  quarrel,  and  the  prompt 
discharge  might  be  the  brave  and  right  thing  to 
do.  If  one  felt  it  a  contribution  one  was  required 
to  make  to  the  whole  servant  problem,  and  after 
considering  all  the  inconvenience  it  would  cost, 
still  felt  that  life  as  a  whole  was  worth  more  with 
this  particular  servant  out  of  the  house  than  in  it, 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 29 

then  precisely  the  same  act,  which  ordinarily 
would  be  wrong,  in  this  exceptional  case  would  be 
right.  It  is  not  what  you  do,  but  how  you  do  it, 
that  determines  whether  an  outburst  of  anger  is 
virtuous  or  vicious.  If  the  whole  self  is  in  it,  if  all 
interests  have  been  fully  weighed  by  the  reason,  if, 
in  short,  you  are  all  there  when  you  do  it,  then 
the  act  is  a  virtuous  act,  and  the  special  name  of 
this  virtue  of  the  spirit  is  courage  or  fortitude. 
Anger  and  indignation  going  off  on  its  own 
account  is  always  vicious.  Anger  and  indignation 
properly  controlled  by  reason  in  the  interest  of  the 
total  self  is  always  good.  Precisely  the  same  out- 
ward act  done  by  one  man  in  one  set  of  circum- 
stances is  bad,  and  shows  the  man  to  be  vicious, 
cowardly,  and  weak;  while,  if  done  by  another 
man  in  other  circumstances,  it  shows  him  to  be 
strong,  brave,  and  manly.  Virtue  and  vice  are 
questions  of  the  subordination  or  insubordination 
of  the  lower  to  the  higher  elements  of  our  nature ; 
of  the  parts  of  our  selves  to  the  whole.  The 
subordination  of  appetite  to  reason  has  given  us 
the  first  of  the  four  virtues.  The  subordination  of 
spirit  to  reason  has  given  us  fortitude,  the  second. 
Wisdom,  the  third  of  Plato's  cardinal  virtues, 
consists  in  the  supremacy  of  reason  over  spirit 
and   appetite;    just   as   temperance   and   courage 


I30  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

consisted  in  the  subordination  of  appetite  and 
spirit  to  reason.  Wisdom,  then,  is  much  the  same 
thing  as  temperance  and  courage,  only  in  more 
positive  and  comprehensive  form.  Wisdom  is  the 
vision  of  the  good,  the  true  end  of  man,  for  the 
sake  of  which  the  lower  elements  must  be  subor- 
dinated. What,  then,  is  the  good,  according  to 
Plato  ?  The  good  is  the  principle  of  order,  pro- 
portion, and  harmony  that  binds  the  many  parts 
of  an  object  into  the  effective  unity  of  an  organic 
whole.  The  good  of  a  watch  is  that  perfect  work- 
ing together  of  all  its  springs  and  wheels  and 
hands,  which  makes  it  keep  time.  The  good  of  a 
thing  is  the  thing's  proper  and  distinctive  function ; 
and  the  condition  of  its  performing  its  function  is 
the  subordination  of  its  parts  to  the  interest  of 
the  whole. 

The  good  of  a  horse  is  strength  and  speed ; 
but  this  in  turn  involves  the  coordination  of  its 
parts  in  graceful,  free  movement.  The  good  of 
a  state  is  the  cooperation  of  all  its  citizens,  accord- 
ing to  their  several  capacities,  for  the  happiness 
and  welfare  of  the  whole  community.  Wisdom 
in  the  statesman  is  the  power  to  see  such  an 
ideal  relation  of  the  citizens  to  each  other,  and 
the  means  by  which  it  can  be  attained  and  con- 
served.    The  good  of  the  individual  man,  likewise, 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  I31 

is  the  harmonious  working  together  of  all  the 
elements  in  him,  so  as  to  produce  a  satisfactory 
life ;  and  wisdom  is  the  vision  of  such  a  truly- 
satisfactory  life,  and  of  the  conditions  of  its  attain- 
ment. Since  man  lives  in  a  world  full  of  natural 
objects,  and  of  works  of  art;  since  he  is  surrounded 
by  other  men  and  is  a  member  of  a  state;  and 
since  his  welfare  depends  on  his  fulfilling  his 
relations  to  these  objects  and  persons,  it  follows 
that  wisdom  to  see  his  own  true  good  will  involve 
a  knowledge  of  these  objects,  persons,  and  institu- 
tions around  him.  Hence  rather  more  than  half 
the  Republic  is  occupied  with  the  problem  of 
education  ;  or  the  training  of  men  in  that  wisdom 
which  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  the  good. 

IV 

Plato's  scheme  of  education 

Education,  therefore,  in  Plato's  ideal  Republic, 
was  a  lifelong  affair,  and  from  first  to  last  practi- 
cal. For  the  guardians,  the  men  who  were  to 
be  rulers  or,  as  we  should  say,  leaders  of  their 
fellows,  he  prescribed  the  following  course  :  From 
early  childhood  until  the  age  of  seventeen,  —  that 
is,  through  our  elementary  and  high  school  periods, 
—  he  would  give  chief  attention  to  what  he  calls 


132  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

music  ;  that  is,  to  literature,  music,  and  the  plastic 
arts,  with  popular  descriptive  science,  or,  as  we 
call  it  nowadays,  nature  study.  This,  with  ele- 
mentary mathematics  and  gymnastics  as  inci- 
dental, constituted  the  curriculum  for  the  first  ten 
or  twelve  years.  The  chief  stress  through  all 
these  years  he  lays  on  good  literature,  —  good 
both  in  substance  and  in  form ;  for  children  at  this 
age  are  intensely  imitative.  Plato  practically 
anticipated  the  latest  results  of  child  study,  which 
tell  us  that  the  child  builds  up  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  his  conception  of  himself  out  of  materials 
borrowed  from  others  and  incorporated  in  himself 
by  imitative  reproduction ;  and  then  in  turn  inter- 
prets and  understands  others  only  in  so  far  as  he 
can  eject  this  borrowed  material  into  other  persons. 
Hence  Plato  says  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that 
the  children  shall  learn  to  admire  and  love  good 
literature.  That  teachers  should  be  able  to  teach 
the  children  to  read  and  write  and  cipher  and 
draw  he  would  take  for  granted.  The  prime 
qualification,  however,  would  be  the  ability  to  so 
interpret  the  best  literature  as  to  make  the  chil- 
dren admire  and  imitate  and  incorporate  the  noble 
qualities  this  literature  embodies.  Into  the  litera- 
ture thus  inspiringly  taught  in  the  school,  only 
that  which  praised  noble  deeds  in  noble  language 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 33 

should  be  admitted.  Plato's  description  of  good 
literature  for  schools  will  bear  repeating :  "  Any 
deeds  of  endurance  which  are  acted  or  told  by 
famous  men,  these  the  children  ought  to  see  and 
hear.  If  they  imitate  at  all,  they  should  imitate 
the  temperate,  holy,  free,  courageous,  and  the 
like ;  but  they  should  not  depict  or  be  able  to 
imitate  any  kind  of  illiberaUty  or  other  baseness, 
lest  from  imitation  they  come  to  be  what  they 
imitate.  Did  you  never  observe  how  imitations, 
beginning  in  early  youth,  at  last  sink  into  the 
constitution  and  become  a  second  nature  of  body, 
voice,  and  mind  ?"  "  Of  the  harmonies  I  know 
nothing,  but  I  want  to  have  one  warlike,  which 
will  sound  the  word  or  note  which  a  brave  man 
utters  in  the  hour  of  danger  and  stern  resolve, 
or  when  his  cause  is  failing  and  he  is  going  to 
wounds  or  death  or  is  overtaken  by  some  other 
evil,  and  at  every  such  crisis  meets  fortune  with 
calmness  and  endurance ;  and  another  which  may 
be  used  by  him  in  times  of  peace  and  freedom  of 
action,  when  there  is  no  pressure  of  necessity  — 
expressive  of  entreaty,  or  persuasion,  or  prayer 
to  God,  or  instruction  of  man,  or  again  of  willing- 
ness to  listen  to  persuasion  or  entreaty  or  advice ; 
and  which  represents  him  when  he  has  accom- 
plished his  aim,  not  carried  away  by  success,  but 


134  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

acting  moderately  and  wisely,  and  acquiescing  in 
the  event.  These  two  harmonies  I  ask  you  to 
leave:  the  strain  of  necessity  and  the  strain  of  free- 
dom, the  strain  of  courage,  and  the  strain  of  tem- 
perance. We  would  not  have  our  guardians  grow 
up  amid  images  of  moral  deformity,  as  in  some 
noxious  pasture,  and  there  browse  and  feed  upon 
many  a  baneful  herb  and  flower  day  by  day,  little 
by  little,  until  they  silently  gather  a  festering  mass 
of  corruption  in  their  own  souls.  Let  our  artists 
rather  be  those  who  are  gifted  to  discern  the  true 
nature  of  beauty  and  grace ;  then  will  our  youth 
dwell  in  a  land  of  health,  amid  fair  sights  and 
sounds ;  and  beauty,  the  effluence  of  fair  works, 
will  meet  the  sense  like  a  breeze,  and  insensibly 
draw  the  soul,  even  in  childhood,  into  harmony 
with  the  beauty  of  reason.  Rhythm  and  harmony 
find  their  way  into  the  secret  places  of  the  soul, 
on  which  they  mightily  fasten,  bearing  grace  in 
their  movements,  and  making  the  soul  graceful 
of  him  who  is  rightly  educated,  or  ungraceful  if 
ill  educated  ;  and  also  because  he  who  has  received 
this  true  education  of  the  inner  being  will  most 
shrewdly  perceive  omissions  or  faults  in  art  or 
nature,  and  with  a  true  taste,  while  he  praises 
and  rejoices  over  and  receives  into  his  soul  the 
good,  and  becomes  noble  and  good,  he  will  justly 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  135 

blame  and  hate  the  bad,  now  in  the  days  of  his 
youth,  even  before  he  is  able  to  know  the  reason 
of  the  thing ;  and  when  reason  comes,  he  will 
recognise  and  salute  her  as  a  friend  with  whom 
his  education  has  made  him  long  familiar." 

Thus,  according  to  Plato,  the  important  thing 
for  a  youth  to  secure  by  the  time  he  is  seventeen 
is  the  admiration  of  noble  deeds,  and  noble  words, 
and  noble  character.  The  love  of  good  literature 
is  the  backbone  of  this  elementary  education. 
Manual  training  and  nature  study,  as  a  means  to 
the  appreciation  of  beautiful  works  of  art  and 
beautiful  objects  in  nature,  he  would  also  approve. 
On  the  whole  Plato  is  an  advocate  of  those  very 
reforms  which  are  now  being  introduced  into  the 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  in  the  name  of 
the  New  Education.  What  one  loves  is  of  more 
importance  than  what  one  knows ;  what  one  wants 
to  do,  and  is  interested  in  trying  to  do,  is  of  more 
consequence  at  this  stage  than  what  one  has  done. 
Early  education  should  be  an  introduction  to  the 
true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good  in  the  form  of 
great  men,  brave  deeds,  beautiful  objects,  and 
beneficent  laws.  The  development  of  taste  is 
more  than  the  acquisition  of  information ;  the  in- 
spiration of  literature,  history,  art,  and  descriptive 
science  is   far   more  valuable   than   drill  beyond 


136  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

the  essentials  in  grammar,  geography,  and  arith- 
metic. 

Plato's  programme  for  the  years  from  seventeen 
to  twenty,  three  of  our  four  college  years,  is  even 
more  startling  and  heretical ;  and  quite  in  line 
with  certain  tendencies  in  our  own  day.  He 
would  set  apart  the  three  years  from  seventeen  to 
twenty  for  gymnastic  exercises,  including  in  such 
exercises,  however,  military  drill.  Plato  appreci- 
ated both  the  advantage  and  disadvantage  of 
intense  athletic  exercises.  "  The  period,  whether 
of  two  or  three  years,  which  passes  in  this  sort  of 
training  is  useless  for  any  other  purpose,  —  for 
sleep  and  exercise  are  unpropitious  to  learning; 
and  the  trial  is  one  of  the  most  important  tests  to 
which  they  are  subjected." 

At  the  age  of  twenty  he  would  select  the  most 
promising  youths  and  give  them  a  ten  years'  course 
in  severe  study  of  science.  This  systematic  study 
corresponds  to  the  graduate  and  professional  period 
in  modern  education,  only  he  extends  it  over  ten 
years,  where  we  confine  it  to  three  or  four.  Again 
at  thirty  there  is  another  selection  of  those  who 
are  most  steadfast  in  their  learning  and  most  faith- 
ful in  their  military  and  public  duties,  and  these 
are  given  a  five  years'  course  in  dialectic  or  phi- 
losophy.   They  are  trained  to  see  the  relation  of 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 3/ 

the  special  sciences  to  each  other  and  how  each 
department  of  truth  is  related  to  the  whole.  At 
the  age  of  thirty-five  they  must  be  appointed  to 
military  and  other  offices.  "  In  this  way  they 
will  get  their  experience  of  life,  and  there  will 
be  an  opportunity  to  try  whether,  when  they  are 
drawn  all  manner  of  ways  by  temptation,  they 
will  stand  firm  or  stir  at  all."  And  when  they  have 
reached  the  age  of  fifty,  after  fifteen  years  of  this 
laboratory  work  in  actual  public  service,  holding 
subordinate  offices  and  learning  to  discriminate 
good  and  evil,  not  as  we  find  them  done  up  in  pack- 
ages and  labelled  in  the  study,  but  as  they  are 
interwoven  in  the  complicated  texture  of  real  life, 
"those  who  still  survive  and  have  distinguished 
themselves  in  every  deed  and  in  all  knowledge, 
come  at  last  to  their  graduation  ;  the  time  has  now 
arrived  at  which  they  must  raise  the  eye  of  the 
soul  to  the  universal  light  which  lightens  all  things 
and  behold  the  absolute  good;  for  that  is  the 
pattern  according  to  which  they  are  to  order  the 
state  and  the  lives  of  individuals  and  the  remainder 
of  their  own  lives  also,  making  philosophy  their 
chief  pursuit ;  but  when  their  turn  comes,  also 
toiling  at  politics  and  ruling  for  the  public  good." 
The  wisdom  which  comes  of  this  prolonged  and 
elaborate  education  is   the   third   of   Plato's  four 


138  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

cardinal  virtues.  In  the  state  it  is  the  ruling 
principle,  and  its  agents  are  the  philosophers.  As 
Plato  says  in  a  famous  passage :  "  Until  then 
philosophers  are  kings,  or  the  kings  and  princes  of 
this  world  have  the  spirit  and  power  of  philosophy, 
and  political  greatness  and  wisdom  meet  in  one, 
and  those  commoner  natures  who  follow  either  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  other  are  compelled  to  stand 
aside,  cities  will  never  cease  from  ill,  —  no,  nor 
the  human  race,  as  I  believe,  —  and  then  only  will 
this  our  state  have  a  possibility  of  life  and  behold 
the  light  of  day."  Precisely  so,  no  individual  will 
attain  his  true  estate  until  this  philosophic  prin- 
ciple, which  sees  the  good,  through  training 
has  been  so  developed  that  it  can  bring  both 
appetite  and  spirit  into  subjection  to  it,  as  a 
charioteer  controls  his  headstrong  horses. 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  THE  COMPREHENSIVE  VIRTUE 

We  now  have  three  of  the  cardinal  virtues : 
temperance,  the  subjection  of  appetite  to  reason ; 
fortitude,  the  control  of  the  spirit  by  reason;  and 
wisdom,  won  through  education,  the  assertion  of 
the  dictates  of  reason  over  the  clamour  of  both 
appetite   and   spirit.     But  where,   amid   all    this. 


PLATONIC  SUBORDINATION  1 39 

Plato  asks,  is  righteousness  ?  In  reply  he  re- 
marks, "that  when  we  first  began  our  inquiry, 
ages  ago,  there  lay  righteousness  rolling  at  our 
feet,  and  we,  fools  that  we  were,  failed  to  see  her, 
like  people  who  go  about  looking  for  what  they 
have  in  their  hands.  Righteousness  is  the  com- 
prehensive aspect  of  the  three  virtues  already  con- 
sidered in  detail.  It  is  the  ultimate  cause  and 
condition  of  the  existence  of  all  of  them.  Right- 
eousness in  a  state  consists  in  each  citizen  doing 
the  thing  to  which  his  nature  is  most  perfectly 
adapted :  in  minding  one's  own  business,  in  other 
words,  with  a  view  to  the  good  of  the  whole. 
Righteousness  in  an  individual,  then,  consists  in 
having  each  part  of  one's  nature  devoted  to  its 
specific  function :  in  having  the  appetites  obey, 
in  having  the  spirit  steadfast  in  difficulty  and 
danger,  and  in  having  the  reason  rule  supreme. 
Thus  righteousness,  that  subordination  and  co- 
ordination of  all  the  parts  of  the  soul  in  the 
service  of  the  soul  as  a  whole,  includes  each  of  the 
other  three  virtues  and  comprehends  them  all  in 
the  unity  of  the  soul's  organic  life.  "  For  the 
righteous  man  does  not  permit  the  several 
elements  within  him  to  meddle  with  one  another, 
but  he  sets  in  order  his  own  inner  life,  and  is  his 
own  master,  and  at  peace  with  himself ;  when  he 


i 

^ 


[40  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

has  bound  together  the  three  principles  within 
him,  and  is  no  longer  many,  but  has  become 
one  entirely  temperate  and  perfectly  adjusted 
pature,  then  he  will  begin  to  act,  if  he  has  to  act, 
/whether  in  a  matter  of  property,  or  in  the  treat- 
/  ment  of  the  body,  or  in  some  affairs  of  poUtics  or 
^i  of  private  business;  in  all  which  cases  he  will 
think  and  call  just  and  good  action,  that  which 
preserves  and  cooperates  with  this  condition,  and 
the  knowledge  which  presides  over  this  wisdom." 
Unrighteousness,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  exact 
opposite  of  this.  "Then  assuming  the  three- 
fold division  of  the  soul,  must  not  unrighteousness 
be  a  kind  of  quarrel  between  these  three  —  a 
meddlesomeness  and  interference,  a  rising  up  of  a 
part  of  the  soul  against  the  whole  soul,  an  assertion 
of  unlawful  authority,  which  is  made  by  a  rebellious 
subject  against  a  true  prince,  of  whom  he  is  the 
natural  vassal  —  this  is  the  sort  of  thing  ;  the  con- 
fusion and  error  of  these  parts  or  elements  in 
unrighteousness  and  intemperance,  cowardice,  and 
ignorance,  and  in  general  all  vice."  In  other 
words,  righteousness  and  unrighteousness  "are 
like  disease  and  health ;  being  in  the  soul  just 
what  disease  and  health  are  in  the  body."  "  Then 
virtue  is  the  health  and  beauty  and  well-being  of 
the  soul,  vice  is   the  disease   and   weakness  and 


PLATONIC  SUBORDINATION  I4I 

deformity  of  the  soul."  From  this  point  of  view 
our  old  question  of  the  comparative  advantage  of 
righteousness  and  unrighteousness  answers  itself. 
Indeed,  the  question  whether  it  is  more  profitable 
to  be  righteous  and  do  righteously  and  practice 
virtue,  whether  seen  or  unseen  of  gods  and  men, 
or  to  be  unrighteous  and  act  unrighteously  if  only 
unpunished,  becomes,  Plato  says,  ridiculous.  "  If 
when  the  bodily  constitution  is  gone,  life  is  no 
longer  endurable,  though  pampered  with  every 
sort  of  meats  and  drinks,  and  having  all  wealth 
and  all  power,  shall  we  be  told  that  life  is  worth 
having  when  the  very  essence  of  the  vital  principle 
is  undermined  and  corrupted,  even  though  a  man 
be  allowed  to  do  whatever  he  pleases,  if  at  the 
same  time  he  is  forbidden  to  escape  from  vice  and 
unrighteousness,  or  attain  righteousness  and  virtue, 
seeing  that  we  now  know  the  true  nature  of  each  ? " 
Righteousness,  according  to  Plato,  is  the  condi- 
tion of  the  soul's  health  and  life.  To  part  with 
righteousness  for  any  external  advantage  is  to  com- 
mit the  supreme  folly  of  selling  our  own  souls. 
Righteousness  is  the  organising  principle  of  the 
soul;  unrighteousness  is  the  disorganising  principle. 
Health  and  life  rest  on  organisation.  Disorganisa- 
tion and  vice  are  synonymous  with  disease  and 
death.     Therefore,  all  seeming  gains  that  one  may 


142  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

win  in  the  paths  of  unrighteousness  really  involve 
the  greatest  possible  loss. 

/  We  have  now  seen  what  righteousness  is, 
whether  in  a  state  or  in  an  individual.  It  is  the 
'  health,  harmony,  beauty,  excellence  of  the  whole 
state  or  the  whole  man,  secured  by  having  each 
{  member  attend  strictly  to  its  own  distinctive  work, 
with  a  view  to  the  good  of  the  whole  state  or 
the  whole  man.  Thus  defined  it  is  something 
so  obviously  desirable  and  essential,  that  nothing 
else  IS  worthy  to  be  compared  with  it.  Whoever 
*<t  parts  with  it  even  in  exchange  for  the  greatest 
d^  outward  honours,  emoluments,  comforts,  or  pleas- 
ures, is  bound  to  get  the  worst  of  the  bargain. 
\  Yet  men  do  part  with  it;  states  do  part  with  it. 
And  the  eighth  and  ninth  books  of  the  Republic 
are  devoted  to  a  description  of  the  four  stages  of 
degeneration  through  which  states  and  individuals 
pass  on  the  downward  road  from  righteousness 
and  virtue  to  unrighteousness  and  vice.  The 
breaking  up  of  a  thing  often  reveals  its  nature 
as  effectually  as  the  putting  it  together;  and  as 
we  have  traced  the  four  virtues  by  which  either 
the  state  or  the  soul  is  constructed,  it  will  throw 
added  light  upon  the  problem  to  trace  in  conclu- 
sion the  four  stages  through  which  men  and 
states  go  down  to  destruction. 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  I43 

VI 

THE  STAGES  OF   DEGENERATION 

The  first  step  down  is  where,  instead  of  the 
good,  men  seek  personal  honour  and  distinction. 
At  first  the  deterioration,  whether  in  ^ate  or 
individual,  is  hardly  noticeable.  An  ambitious 
statesman,  on  the  whole,  will  advocate,  if  he  is 
shrewd  and  far-sighted,  much  the  same  measures 
as  the  statesman  who  is  intent  on  the  welfare  of 
the  state.  For  he  knows  that  by  promoting  the 
pubHc  welfare  he  will  most  effectively  gain  the 
reputation  and  distinction  he  desires.  Yet  there 
is  a  marked  difference  in  the  attitude  of  mind, 
and  in  the  long  run  that  difference  will  express 
itself  in  action.  When  it  comes  to  a  close  and 
hard  decision,  where  the  real  interest  of  the  state 
lies  in  one  direction,  and  the  waves  of  popular 
enthusiasm  are  running  in  an  opposite  direction, 
the  man  who  cares  for  the  real  welfare  of  the 
state  will  stand  fast,  while  the  man  who  cares 
supremely  for  honour  and  distinction  will  be  more 
likely  to  give  way.  Besides,  contention  and  strife 
will  arise,  since  the  ambitious  man  is  more  anxious 
to  do  something  himself  than  he  is  to  have  the 
best  thing  done  by  some  one  else.     Hence  the 


144-  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

state  where  the  statesmen  love  power,  office,  and 
honour  will  be  less  well  off  than  the  state  where 
they  are  disinterestedly  devoted  to  the  public 
good. 

Just  so  the  man  who  is  supremely  covetous  of 
power  and  honour  will  be  weaker  than  the  man 
who  loves  the  good  and  follows  the  guidance  of 
reason  as  supreme,  in  both  these  respects.  He 
will  be  prone  to  follow  the  clamour  of  the  multi- 
tude when  he  knows  it  is  not  the  voice  of  reason ; 
and  he  will  try  to  have  his  own  way,  even  when 
he  knows  that  the  way  of  another  man  is  better 
than  his.  As  Plato  says,  "  He  gives  up  the  king- 
dom that  is  within  him  to  the  middle  principle 
of  contentiousness  and  passion,  and  becomes 
proud  and  ambitious."  Here,  then,  are  the  two 
tests  by  which  each  man  may  judge  for  himself 
whether  he  is  a  degenerate  of  the  first  grade  or 
not.  First:  Will  you  do  what  reason  shows  you 
to  be  right  every  time,  at  all  costs,  no  matter  if 
all  the  honours  and  emoluments  are  attached  to 
doing  something  a  shade  or  two  off  from  this 
absolutely  right  and  reasonable  course  ?  Second : 
Would  you  rather  have  what  is  best  done  by 
somebody  else,  and  let  him  have  the  credit  of  it, 
rather  than  get  all  the  credit  yourself  by  doing 
something  not  quite  so  good  ?    The  man  of  pride 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  145 

and  ambition  can  never  be  quite  disinterested  in 
his  service  of  the  good,  although  incidentally  most 
of  the  things  he  does  will  be  good  things.  As 
Plato  puts  it,  "  He  is  not  single-minded  toward 
virtue,  having  lost  his  best  guardian."  He  has 
neglected  "the  one  thing  that  can  preserve  a 
man's  goodness  through  his  life  —  reason  blended 
with  music." 

It  is  a  short  and  easy  step,  in  state  and  indi- 
vidual, from  the  love  of  honour  down  to  the  love 
of  money  as  the  guiding  principle  of  life.  The 
appetitive  side  of  life  is  always  present,  even  in 
the  most  upright  of  men.  It  may  be  asleep,  but 
it  is  never  dead.  And  when  there  is  nothing 
^)  more  deep  and  vital  than  the  love  of  honour  to 
^  1  hold  it  in   restraint,  it  is  sure  to  wake  up   and 

\  prowl  about.  Rivalry  for  honour  soon  reveals  the 
fact  that  directly  or  indirectly  honour  and  office 
can  be  bought.  Then  comes  the  state  of  things 
where  only  rich  men  can  get  office,  or  can  afford 
to  hold  it  if  it  comes  to  them.  That  in  the  state 
is  what  Plato  calls  an  oligarchy.  The  deteriora- 
tion of  a  state  under  this  condition  is  very  rapid, 
for,  as   he   says,   "  When   riches   and  virtue  are 

I  placed  together  in  the  scales  of  the  balance,  the 
one  always  rises  as  the  other  falls.  And  so  at 
last,  instead  of  loving  contention  and  glory,  men 


1 


146  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

become  lovers  of  trade  and  of  money,  and  they 
honour  and  reverence  the  rich  man  and  make  a 
ruler  of  him,  and  dishonour  the  poor  man."  The 
evils  of  this  oligarchical  rule,  he  says,  are  illus- 
trated by  considering  the  nature  of  the  quaUfication 
for  office  and  influence.  "Just  think  what  would 
happen  if  the  pilots  were  to  be  chosen  according 
to  their  property,  and  a  poor  man  refused  per- 
mission to  steer,  even  though  he  were  the  better 
pilot  .^"  The  other  defect  is  "  the  inevitable  divi- 
sion ;  such  a  state  is  not  one  but  two  states,  the 
one  of  poor  men,  the  other  of  rich  men,  who  are 
living  on  the  same  spot  and  ever  conspiring 
against  one  another." 

The  avaricious  man  is  like  the  state  which  is 
governed  by  rich  men.  "Is  not  this  man  Hkely 
to  seat  the  concupiscent  and  covetous  elements 
on  the  vacant  throne  ?  And  when  he  has  made 
the  reasoning  and  passionate  faculties  sit  on  the 
ground  obediently  on  either  side,  and  taught  them 
to  know  their  place,  he  compels  the  one  to  think 
only  of  the  method  by  which  lesser  sums  may  be 
converted  into  larger  ones,  and  schools  the  other 
into  the  worship  and  admiration  of  riches  and 
rich  men.  Of  all  conversions  there  is  none  so 
speedy  or  so  sure  as  when  the  ambitious  youth 
changes  into  the  avaricious  one." 


PLATONIC    SUBORDINATION  147 

Nowhere  is  Plato  more  keen  or  more  fair  than 
in  his  judgment  of  the  money-maker.  He  says 
that  he  will  generally  do  the  right  thing ;  he  will 
be  eminently  respectable ;  he  will  not  sink  to  very 
low  or  disreputable  courses.  All  his  goodness, 
however,  will  be  of  a  forced,  constrained,  artificial, 
and  at  bottom  unreal  character.  He  will  be  good 
because  he  has  to,  in  order  to  maintain  that  stand- 
ing in  the  community  on  which  his  wealth  depends. 
In  Plato's  own  words :  "  He  coerces  his  bad  pas- 
sions by  an  effort  of  virtue ;  not  that  he  convinces 
them  of  evil,  or  exerts  over  them  the  gentle  influ- 
ence of  reason,  but  he  acts  upon  them  by  necessity 
and  fear,  and  because  he  trembles  for  his  posses- 
sions. This  sort  of  man  will  be  at  war  with  him- 
self :  he  will  be  two  men,  not  one ;  but,  in  general, 
his  better  desires  will  be  found  to  prevail  over  his 
inferior  ones.  For  these  reasons  such  an  one 
will  be  more  decent  than  many  are ;  yet  the  true 
virtue  of  a  unanimous  and  harmonious  soul  will 
be  far  out  of  his  reach." 

The  next  step  down  for  the  state  is  what  Plato 
calls  democracy.  Of  the  democracy  of  intelligence 
and  self-control  diffused  throughout  the  body  of 
self-respecting  citizens  Plato  had  formed  and  could 
form  no  conception.  By  democracy  he  meant  the 
state  of  things  where  each  man  does  that  which  is 


{^4^  FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

right  in   his   own   eyes.     "  In  the  first  place  the 

^   citizens  are  free.     The  city  is  full  of  freedom  and 

I    frankness  —  there   a   man    may   do   as   he   likes. 

J5  They  have  a  complete  assortment  of  constitutions ; 

(P  and  if  a  man  has  a  mind  to  establish  a  state,  he 

i.    must  go   to  a   democracy  as   he  would   go  to  a 

^Ibazaar,  where  they  sell  them,  and   pick  out  one 

t  s  that  suits  him.     Democracy  is  a  most  accommodat- 

^  ..  ing   and   charming  form   of   government,  full  of 

A!^  variety  and  diversity,   and  (this,  perhaps,   is  the 

keenest    of    all   Plato's   keen   thrusts)  dispensing 

equality  to  equals  and  unequals  alike." 

The  man  corresponding  to  democracy  in  the 
state,  is  the  man  whose  life  is  given  over  to  the 
undiscriminating  enjoyment  of  all  sorts  of  pleas- 
ures. "  In  this  way  the  young  man  passes  out  of 
his  original  nature  which  was  trained  in  the  school 
of  necessity,  into  the  freedom  and  libertinism  of 
useless  and  unnecessary  pleasures,  putting  the 
government  of  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  one 
of  his  pleasures  that  offers  and  wins  the  turn ;  and 
when  he  has  had  enough  of  that,  then  into  the 
hands  of  another,  and  is  very  impartial  in  his 
encouragement  of  them  all.  Neither  does  he  re- 
ceive or  admit  into  the  fortress  any  true  word  of 
advice ;  if  any  one  says  to  him  that  some  pleasures 
are  the   satisfactions   of  good  and  noble  desires, 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  149 

and  others  of  evil  desires,  and  that  he  ought  to  use 
and  honour  some  and  curtail  and  reduce  others  — 
whenever  this  is  repeated  to  him  he  shakes  his 
head  and  says  that  they  are  all  alike,  and  that  one 
is  as  honourable  as  another.  He  lives  through  the 
day,  indulging  the  appetite  of  the  hour ;  and  some- 
times he  is  lapped  in  drink  and  strains  of  the  flute ; 
then  he  is  for  total  abstinence,  and  tries  to  get 
thin ;  then  again,  he  is  at  gymnastics ;  sometimes 
idUng  and  neglecting  everything,  then  once  more 
living  the  life  of  a  philosopher;  often  he  is  at 
politics,  and  starts  to  his  feet  and  says  and  does 
anything  that  may  turn  up ;  and,  if  he  is  emulous 
of  any  one  who  is  a  warrior,  off  he  is  in  that  direc- 
tion, or  of  men  of  business,  once  more  in  that. 
His  life  has  neither  order  nor  law  ;  and  this  is  the 
way  of  him,  —  this  he  terms  joy  and  freedom  and 
happiness.  There  is  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity enough  in  him." 

The  life  of  chance  desire,  unregulated  by  any 
subordinating  principle,  then,  is  the  third  stage  of 
the  descent  and  degradation  of  the  soul. 

In  the  state  democracy  speedily  and  inevitably 
passes  over  into  tyranny.  All  appetite  is  insati- 
able. In  a  state  where  each  citizen  does  what  he 
pleases  "all  things  are  just  ready  to  burst  with 
liberty ;  excess  of  liberty,  whether  in  states  or  in- 


150  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

dividuals,  seems  only  to  pass  into  excess  of  slavery. 
Then  tyranny  naturally  arises  out  of  democracy." 
He  then  proceeds,  with  prophetic  pen,  to  trace  the 
evolution  of  the  modern  political  boss.  First 
there  develops  a  class  of  drones  who  get  their 
living  as  professional  politicians.  Second,  "  there 
is  the  richest  class,  which,  in  a  nation  of  traders, 
is  generally  the  most  orderly ;  they  are  the  most 
squeezable  persons  and  yield  the  largest  amount 
of  honey  to  the  drones ;  this  is  called  the  wealthy 
class,  and  the  drones  feed  upon  them.  There  is 
also  a  third  class,  consisting  of  working-men  who 
are  not  politicians  and  have  little  to  live  upon; 
these,  when  assembled,  are  the  largest  and  most 
powerful  class  in  a  democracy;  but  then,  the  multi- 
tude is  seldom  willing  to  meet  unless  they  get  a 
little  honey.  Their  leaders  take  the  estates  of  the 
rich  and  give  to  the  people  as  much  of  them  as 
they  can  consistently  with  keeping  the  greater 
part  themselves.  The  people  have  always  some 
one  as  a  champion  whom  they  raise  into  greatness. 
This  is  the  very  root  from  which  a  tyrant  (that  is, 
as  we  should  say,  a  boss)  comes.  When  he  first 
appears  above  ground,  he  is  a  protector.  At  first, 
in  the  early  days  of  his  power,  he  smiles  upon 
every  one  and  salutes  every  one ;  he,  to  be  called  a 
tyrant  who  is  making  promises  in  public  and  also  in 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  I5I 

private,  and  wanting  to  be  kind  and  good  to  every 
one !  Thus  liberty,  getting  out  of  all  order  and 
reason,  passes  into  the  harshest  and  bitterest  form 
of  slavery."  The  worst  form  of  government,  ac- 
cording to  Plato,  is  that  which  we  know  too  well 
to-day  in  our  great  cities :  the  government  of  the 
professional  politician  who  maintains  himself  by 
buying  the  votes  of  the  poor  with  the  money  he 
has  squeezed  out  of  the  rich.  All  pretence  of 
administering  the  government  in  the  interest  of 
the  community  is  frankly  abandoned.  The  boss, 
or  tyrant,  as  Plato  calls  him,  frankly  and  unblush- 
ingly  avows  that  he  is  in  politics  for  what  he  can 
get  out  of  it. 

The  true  statesman,  the  philosopher  king,  in 
Plato's  phrase,  sees  and  serves  the  public  good. 
Such  a  government  Plato  calls  an  aristocracy,  or 
the  government  of  the  best  for  the  good  of  all. 
First  below  that  comes  timocracy,  or  the  govern- 
ment of  those  who  are  ambitious  for  power  and 
place.  Next  comes  oligarchy,  the  government  of 
the  rich  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the 
moneyed  class.  Next  below  that,  and  as  a  logical 
consequence,  comes  populism,  which  is  our  word 
for  what  Plato  calls  democracy;  a  government 
which  aims  to  satisfy  the  immediate  wants  of 
everybody,  regardless  of  moral,  legal,  or  constitu- 


4 


152  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

tional  restraints.     Last,  and  lowest  of  all,  comes 
the   rule   of   the   professional  politician  who   has 
thrown  all  pretence  of  regard  for  the  public  good, 
all  consideration  of  honour,  all  loyalty  to  the  rich 
and  genuine  sympathy  for  the  poor  to  the  winds, 
and  is  simply  manipulating  the  forms  of  govern- 
ment, getting   and   distributing   offices,  collecting 
assessments    and    distributing    bribes,    all   in   the 
interests  of  his  own  private  pocket.     Between  dis- 
interested service  of  the  public  good  and  such  un- 
blushing pursuit  of  private  gain,  Plato  says  that 
there  is  no   stopping   place.     Logically  Plato  is 
right;  historically,  too,  he  was  right  at  the  time 
when  he  was  writing,  l  Modern  democracy,  how- 
i  ever,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  populistic 
I  democracy  with  which    Plato   was   familiar  and 
which  our  large  cities  know  too  well.     A  democ- 
racy, resting  on  intelligence  and  public  spirit,  dif- 
;   fused   through   rich  and  poor  alike,  was   beyond 
;    Plato's  profoundest  dreams.     That   great  experi- 
\   ment  the  American  people,  with  their  public-school 
system,  and  their  principle  of  the  equality  of  all 
before  the  law,  are  now  trying  on  a  gigantic  scale. 
Corresponding  to  the  tyrannical  state  comes  the 
tyrannical  man.    "  The  wild  beast  in  our  nature  gets 
the   upper  hand  and  the  man  becomes  drunken, 
lustful,  passionate,  the  best  elements  in  him  are 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  153 

enslaved ;  and  there  is  a  small  ruling  part  which 
is  also  the  worst  and  the  maddest.  He  has  the 
soul  of  the  slave,  and  the  tyrannical  soul  must 
always  be  poor  and  insatiable.  He  is  by  far  the 
most  miserable  of  all  men."  "  He  who  is  the  real 
tyrant,  whatever  men  may  think,  is  the  real  ser- 
vant and  is  obhged  to  practice  the  greatest  adula- 
tion and  servility  and  be  the  flatterer  of  mankind ; 
he  has  desires  which  he  is  truly  unable  to  satisfy, 
and  has  more  wants  than  any  one,  and  is  truly  poor 
if  you  know  how  to  inspect  the  soul  of  him.  All 
his  life  long  he  is  beset  with  fear  and  is  full  of 
convulsions  and  distractions.  Even  as  the  state 
which  he  resembles,  he  grows  worse  from  having 
power;  he  becomes  of  necessity  more  jealous, 
more  faithless,  more  unjust,  more  impious ;  he 
entertains  and  nurtures  every  evil  sentiment,  and 
the  consequence  is  that  he  is  supremely  miserable 
and  thus  he  makes  everybody  else  equally  miser- 
able." 

VII 

THE   INTRINSIC    SUPERIORITY   OF    RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Plato  first  constructs  the  ideal  character  and 
shows  that  it  consists  in  the  righteous  rule  of 
the  intelligent  principle  in  man  over  the  spirit  and 
the  appetites.     A  soul  thus  in  harmony  with  itself, 


154        FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

under   the   rule   of    reason,  is   at  once   healthy, 
happy,  beautiful,  and  good.     Later,  reversing  the 
process,  he  shows  how  the  good,  beautiful,  true, 
^  healthy  condition  of  the  soul  may  be  destroyed 
Uhrough    the    successive    steps     of    pride,     ava- 
Trice,  lawless  liberty,  ending  at   last   in    the   tyr- 
*'   Tannous  rule   of   some  single  appetite  or  passion 
Awhich  has  dethroned  reason  and  set  itself  up  as 
^supreme.  /  The  consequence  of  it  all  is  that  "  the 
/^  most  righteous  man  is  also  the  happiest,  and  this 
is  he  who  is  the  most  royal  master  of  himself ;  the 
worst  and  most  unrighteous  man  is  also  the  most 
miserable;   this  is   he  who   is   also  the  greatest 
tyrant  of  himself  and  the  most  complete  slave." 
The  reason  why  the  life  of  a  righteous  man  is 
happier  than  the  life  of  an  unrighteous  man  is 
that  it  has  "a  greater  share  in  pure  existence 
as  a  more  real  being."     "If  there  be  a  pleasure  in 
being  filled  with  that  which  agrees  with  nature; 
that  which  is  more  really  filled  with   more  real 
being  will  have   more  real  and    true    joy    and 
pleasure ;  whereas,  that  which  participates  in  less 
real  being  will  be  less  truly  and   surely  satisfied 
and  will  participate  in  a  less  true  and  real  pleas- 
ure.    Those,    then,  who  know  not  wisdom   and 
virtue,   and   are  always    busy  with  gluttony  and 
sensuality,  never  pass  into  the  true  upper  world ; 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  155 

neither  are  they  truly  filled  with  true  being,  nor  do 
they  taste  of  true  and  abiding  pleasure.  Like 
brute  animals,  with  their  eyes  down  and  bodies 
bent  to  the  earth,  or  leaning  on  the  dining  table, 
they  fatten  and  feed  and  breed,  and,  in  their 
excessive  love  of  these  delights,  they  kick  and  butt 
at  one  another  with  horns  and  hoofs  which  are 
made  of  iron ;  they  kill  one  another  by  reason  of 
their  insatiable  lust ;  for  they  fill  themselves  with 
that  which  is  not  substantial,  and  the  part  of 
themselves  which  they  fill  is  also  unsubstantial 
and  incontinent."  "  Thus  when  the  whole  soul 
follows  the  philosophical  principle,  and  there  is  no 
division,  the  several  parts,  each  of  them,  do  their 
own  business  and  are  righteous,  and  each  of  them 
enjoy  their  own  best  and  truest  pleasures.  But 
when  either  of  the  other  principles  prevails,  it 
fails  in  attaining  its  own  pleasure  and  compels  the 
others  to  pursue  after  a  shadow  of  pleasure  which 
is  not  theirs." 

Having  reached  this  point  Plato  introduces  a 
figure,  which  carries  the  whole  point  of  his  argu- 
ment. "  Do  you  now  model  the  form  of  a  multi- 
tudinous, polycephalous  beast,  having  a  head  of  all 
manner  of  beasts,  tame  and  wild,  making  a  second 
form  as  of  a  lion,  and  a  third  of  a  man;  the 
second  smaller  than  the  first,  and  the  third  smaller 


I  $6  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

than  the  second ;  then  join  them  and  let  the  three 
grow  into  one.  Now  fashion  the  outside  into  a 
single  image  as  of  a  man,  so  that  he  who  is  not 
able  to  look  within  may  believe  the  beast  to  be  a 
single  human  creature.  Now  unrighteousness  con- 
sists in  feasting  the  monster  and  strengthening  the 
lion  in  one  in  such  wise  as  to  weaken  and  starve 
the  man ;  while  righteousness  consists  in  so 
strengthening  the  man  within  him  that  he  may- 
govern  the  many-headed  monster."  "  Righteous- 
ness subjects  the  beast  to  the  man,  or  rather  to  the 
god  in  man,  and  unrighteousness  is  that  which 
subjects  the  man  to  the  beast." 

Finally  Plato  sums  up  the  discussion  by  antici- 
pating the  question  which  Jesus  asked  four  centu- 
ries later.  "  How  would  a  man  profit  if  he  receive 
gold  and  silver  on  the  condition  that  he  was  to 
enslave  the  noblest  part  of  him  to  the  worst? 
Who  can  imagine  that  a  man  who  sold  his  son  or 
daughter  into  slavery  for  money,  especially  if  he  sold 
them  into  the  hands  of  fierce  and  evil  men,  would 
be  the  gainer,  however  much  might  be  the  sum 
which  he  received  ?  And  will  any  one  say  that 
he  is  not  a  miserable  caitiff  who  sells  his  own 
divine  being  to  that  which  is  most  godless  and 
detestable  and  has  no  pity  ?  Eriphyle  took  the 
necklace  as  the  price  of  her  husband's  life,  but  he 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  15/ 

is  taking  a  bribe  in  order  to  compass  a  worse  ruin." 
He  even  pushes  the  question  a  step  further  and  asks, 
"  What  shall  a  man  be  profited  by  unrighteousness 
even  if  his  unrighteousness  be  undetected  ?  For 
he  who  is  undetected  only  gets  worse ;  whereas  he 
who  is  detected  and  punished  has  the  brutal  part 
of  his  nature  silenced  and  humanised ;  the  gentler 
element  in  him  is  liberated  and  his  whole  soul 
is  perfected  and  ennobled  by  the  acquirement  of 
righteousness  and  temperance  and  wisdom.  The 
man  of  understanding  will  concentrate  himself  on 
this  as  the  work  of  life.  In  the  first  place  he  will 
honour  studies  which  impress  these  qualities  on  his 
soul  and  will  disregard  others.  In  the  next  place 
he  will  keep  under  his  body  and  will  be  far  from 
yielding  to  brutal  and  irrational  pleasures,  and  he 
will  be  always  desirous  of  preserving  the  harmony 
of  the  body  for  the  sake  of  the  concord  of  the 
soul.  He  will  not  allow  himself  to  be  dazzled  by 
the  opinion  of  the  world  and  heap  up  riches  to  his 
own  infinite  harm.  He  will  look  at  the  city  which 
is  within  him,  and  he  will  duly  regulate  his  acqui- 
sition and  expense,  in  so  far  as  he  is  able,  and  for 
the  same  reason  he  will  accept  such  honours  as  he 
deems  likely  to  make  him  a  better  man.  He  will 
look  at  the  nature  of  the  soul,  and,  from  the  con- 
sideration of  this,  he  will  determine  which  is  the 


158  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

better  and  which  is  the  worst  life  and  make  his 
choice,  giving  the  name  of  evil  to  the  life  which  will 
make  his  soul  more  unrighteous,  and  good  to  the  life 
which  will  make  his  soul  more  righteous;  for  this  is 
the  best  choice, — best  for  this  life  and  after  death. 
Wherefore  my  counsel  is,  that  we  hold  fast  to  the 
heavenly  way  and  follow  after  righteousness  and 
virtue  always,  considering  that  the  soul  is  im- 
mortal and  able  to  endure  every  sort  of  good  and 
every  sort  of  evil ;  then  shall  we  live  dear  to  one 
another  and  the  gods,  both  while  remaining  here 
and  when,  like  conquerors  in  the  games  who  go 
round  to  gather  gifts,  we  receive  our  reward." 

With  this  magnificent  tribute  to  the  intrinsic 
superiority  of  righteousness  over  unrighteousness 
Plato  concludes  his  greatest  work.  The  question 
why  a  man  should  do  right,  even  if  he  wore  the 
ring  of  Gyges  which  would  exempt  him  from  all 
external  consequences  of  his  misdeeds,  has  been 
answered  by  a  thoroughgoing  analysis  of  the 
nature  of  the  soul,  and  the  demonstration  that 
righteousness  is  that  organisation  of  the  elements 
of  the  soul  into  an  active  and  harmonious  unity, 
wherein  its  health  and  beauty  and  life  and  hap- 
piness consist.  In  conclusion  let  us  borrow  from 
another  of  Plato's  dialogues  the  prayer  which  he 
ascribes  to  Socrates,  —  a  brief  and  simple  prayer, 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  159 

yet  one  which,  in  the  light  of  our  study  of  the 
Republic,  I  trust  we  shall  recognise  as  summing 
up  the  spirit  of  his  teaching  as  a  whole,  "  Beloved 
Pan,  and  all  ye  gods  who  haunt  this  place,  give  me 
beauty  in  the  inward  soul ;  and  may  the  outward 
and  inward  man  be  at  one.  May  I  reckon  the 
wise  to  be  the  wealthy;  and  may  I  have  such  a 
quantity  of  gold  as  none  but  the  temperate  can 
carry.  Anything  more  ?  That  prayer,  I  think, 
is  enough  for  me." 

VIII 

TRUTH  AND  ERROR  IN  PLATONISM 

Obviously  this  Platonic  principle  is  vastly 
deeper  and  truer  than  anything  we  have  had 
before.  The  personality  at  which  both  Stoic  and 
Epicurean  aimed  was  highly  abstract,  —  something 
to  be  gained  by  getting  away  from  the  tangle  and 
complexity  of  life  rather  than  by  conquering  and 
transforming  the  conditions  of  existence  into  ex- 
pressions of  ourselves.  Epicurus  makes  a  few 
sallies  from  his  cosey  comfortable  camp,  to  forage 
for  provender.  The  Stoic  draws  into  the  citadel 
of  his  own  self-sufficiency ;  and  from  this  fortified 
position  defies  attack.  Plato  comes  out  into  the 
open  field,  and  squarely  gives  battle  to  the  hosts 


l60  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

of  appetite,  passion,  temptation,  and  corruption, 
of  which  the  world  outside,  and  our  hearts  inside 
are  full.  In  this  he  is  true  to  the  moral  expe- 
rience of  the  race :  and  his  trumpet-call  to  the 
higher  departments  of  our  nature  to  enter  the 
"  great  combat  of  righteousness  "  ;  his  demand  of 
instantaneous  and  absolute  surrender  which  he  pre- 
sents to  everything  low  and  sensual  within  us, 
are  clear,  strong  notes  which  it  is  good  for  every 
one  of  us  to  hear  and  heed.  To  him  as  to  Car- 
lyle,  "  Life  is  not  a  May-game,  but  a  battle  and 
a  march,  a  warfare  with  principalities  and  powers. 
No  idle  promenade  through  fragrant  orange- 
groves  and  green  flowery  spaces  waited  on  by  the 
choral  muses  and  the  rosy  hours ;  it  is  a  stern  pil- 
grimage through  the  rough,  burning  sandy  soli- 
tudes, through  regions  of  thick-ribbed  ice.  He 
walks  among  men,  loves  men  with  inexpressible 
soft  pity,  as  they  cannot  love  him ;  but  his  soul 
dwells  in  solitude,  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  crea- 
tion. All  Heaven,  all  Pandemonium  are  his 
escort.  The  stars,  keen  glancing,  from  the  immen- 
sities, send  tidings  to  him ;  the  graves,  silent  with 
their  dead,  from  the  eternities.  Deep  calls  for 
him  unto  deep. 

"  Thou,  O  World,  how  wilt  thou  secure  thyself 
against   this   man  ?     None   of   thy   promotions  is 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  l6l 

necessary  for  him.  His  place  is  with  the  stars 
of  Heaven ;  to  thee  it  may  be  momentous,  to  thee 
it  may  be  life  or  death;  to  him  it  is  indifferent, 
whether  thou  place  him  in  the  lowest  hut,  or  forty 
feet  higher  at  the  top  of  thy  stupendous  high 
tower,  while  here  on  Earth.  He  wants  none  of 
thy  rewards;  behold  also  he  fears  none  of  thy 
penalties.  Thou  canst  not  hire  him  by  thy 
guineas ;  nor  by  thy  gibbets  and  law-penalties 
restrain  him.  Thou  canst  not  forward  him ;  thou 
canst  not  hinder  him.  Thy  penalties,  thy  pover- 
ties, neglects,  contumelies,  —  behold  all  these  are 
good  for  him.  To  this  man  death  is  not  a  bug- 
bear; to  this  man  life  is  already  as  earnest  and 
awful,  and  beautiful  and  terrible  as  death." 

This  is  a  note  which  appeals  forcibly  to 
every  noble  youth.  It  has  been  struck  by  the 
Hebrew  Prophets  and  the  Christian  Apostles :  by 
Savonarola  and  Fichte,  and  a  host  of  heroic  souls ; 
but  by  no  one  more  clearly  and  constrainingly 
than  by  Plato.  It  is  the  note  of  earnest  and 
aggressive  righteousness;  without  which  no  per- 
sonality can  be  either  sound  or  strong.  The  man 
who  has  never  heard  this  summons  to  go  forth 
and  conquer  the  evils  of  the  world  without  and  of 
his  own  heart  within  him,  in  the  name  of  a  right- 
eousness high  above  both  his  own  attainment  and 

M 


1 62  FROM   EPICURUS   TO  CHRIST 

the  attainment  of  the  world  about  him  as  the 
heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  is  still  in  the 
nursery  stage  of  personal  development. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  danger  in  the  very 
sharpness  of  the  antithesis  which  Platonism  makes 
between  the  higher  and  the  lower.  For  the  most 
part  this  danger  is  latent  in  Plato  himself;  though 
even  in  him  it  came  out  in  his  tendency  to 
regard  family  life  and  private  property  as  detri- 
mental rather  than  serviceable  to  that  develop- 
ment of  character  on  which  the  larger  devotion 
to  the  state,  and  the  ideal  order,  must  ultimately 
rest. 

In  Neoplatonism,  in  the  many  forms  of  mysti- 
cism, in  certain  aspects  of  Christian  asceticism, 
and  notably  in  the  numerous  phases  of  what  calls 
itself  "New  Thought"  to-day,  what  was  for  the 
most  part  latent  in  Plato,  becomes  frankly  explicit. 
In  general  it  is  a  loosening  of  the  ties  that  hold 
us  to  drudgery  and  homely  duty ;  a  weakening  of 
the  bonds  that  bind  us  to  the  men  and  women  by 
our  side,  in  order  to  gaze  more  serenely  on  the 
ineffable  beyond  the  clouds.  This  developed 
Platonism  admits  that  we  must  live  after  a  fashion 
in  this  very  imperfect  world;  but  says  our  real 
conversation  all  the  time  must  be  in  heaven.  In- 
dividual people  are  but  faulty,  imperfect  copies 


PLATONIC  SUBORDINATION  1 63 

of  the  pattern  of  the  perfect  good  laid  up  on  high. 
We  must  buy  and  sell,  work  and  play,  laugh  and 
cry,  love  and  hate  down  here  among  the  shadows ; 
but  we  must  all  the  time  feed  our  souls  on  the 
good,  the  true,  the  beautiful,  which  these  distorted 
human  shadows  only  serve  to  hide.  These  Pla- 
tonic lovers  of  something  better  than  their  hus- 
bands or  wives,  or  associates  or  friends,  go  through 
the  world  with  a  serene  smile,  and  an  air  of  other- 
worldliness  which,  if  we  do  not  inquire  too  closely 
into  their  domestic  life  and  business  efficiency, 
we  cannot  but  admire.  They  undoubtedly  exert  a 
tranquillising  influence  in  their  way,  especially  on 
those  who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  behold  them  from 
a  little  distance.  <;^  But  they  are  not  the  most  com- 
fortable people  to  live  with,  as  husband  or  wife, 
colleague  or  business  partner.  \  Louisa  Alcott  had 
this  Platonic  type  in  mind  when  she  defined  a 
philosopher  as  a  man  up  in  a  balloon,  with  his 
family  and  friends  having  hold  of  the  ropes,  trying 
to  pull  him  down  to  earth. 

/  K  good  deal  that  passes  for  religion  is  this 
'  Neoplatonism  masquerading  in  Christian  dress. 
All  such  hymns  as  "  The  Sweet  By  and  By,"  "  Oh, 
Paradise,  Oh,  Paradise,"  and  the  like,  which  set 
heaven  and  eternity  in  sharp  antithesis  against 
earth  and  time,  are  simply  Neoplatonism  baptized 


164        FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

into  Christian  phraseology;  and  the  baptism  is 
by  sprinkling  rather  than  immersion. 

Thomas  k  Kempis's  "  Imitation  of  Christ,"  and 
indeed  all  the  mystical  books  of  devotion  — 
Tauler,  F^nelon,  "  The  Theologia  Germanica  "  — 
are  saturated  with  this  Platonic  or  Neoplatonic 
spirit.  "  Thou  shalt  lamentably  fall  away,  if  thou 
set  a  value  upon  any  worldly  thing."  "  Let  there- 
fore nothing  which  thou  doest  seem  to  thee  great ; 
let  nothing  be  grand,  nothing  of  value  or  beauty, 
nothing  worthy  of  honour  save  what  is  eternal." 
"  Man  approacheth  so  much  the  nearer  unto  God, 
the  farther  he  departeth  from  all  earthly  comfort." 
These  words  from  the  "Imitation  of  Christ"  sound 
orthodox  enough  in  our  ears.  But  we  ought  to 
understand  once  for  all  that  it  is  Neoplatonic 
mysticism,  not  essential  Christianity,  that  breathes 
through  them. 

This  type  of  personality  reduces  the  world  to 
two  mutually  exclusive  elements,  God  and  self; 
and  permits  no  reconciliation  or  mediation  be- 
tween them.  Fenelon  puts  this  dualism  in  the 
form  of  a  dilemma.  "  There  is  no  middle  course ; 
we  must  refer  everything  either  to  God  or  to  self ; 
if  to  self,  we  have  no  other  God  than  self ;  if  to 
God,  we  are  then  without  selfish  interests,  and  we 
enter  into  self-abandonment."      Undoubtedly  for 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 6$ 

evangelistic  purposes  the  sharp  antithesis  has 
great  practical  advantages.  It  is  an  easy  way  to 
reach  heaven  —  this  of  scorning  earth;  an  easy 
definition  of  the  infinite  to  pronounce  it  the  nega- 
tion of  the  finite. 

As  Carlyle  has  represented  for  us  the  stronger 
side  of  Platonism,  his  friend  Emerson  shall  serve 
to  illustrate  the  weakness  that  lurks  half  hidden  in 
all  this  way  of  thinking.  It  is  so  concealed  that 
we  shall  hardly  detect  it  unless  we  are  sharply  on 
the  watch  for  this  tendency  to  exalt  the  Infinite  at 
the  expense  of  the  finite;  the  Universal  at  the 
expense  of  the  particular ;  God  at  the  expense  of 
our  neighbour. 

"  Higher  far  into  the  pure  realm, 
Over  sun  and  star, 
Over  the  flickering  Daemon  film, 
Thou  must  mount  for  love  ; 
Into  vision  where  all  form 
In  one  only  form  dissolves  ; 
Where  unlike  things  are  like  ; 
Where  good  and  ill, 
And  joy  and  moan, 
Melt  into  one." 

"  Thus  we  are  put  in  training  for  a  love  which 
knows  not  sex,  nor  person,  nor  partiality.  We  are 
made  to  feel  that  our  affections  are  but  tents  of  a 
night.     There  are  moments  when   the   affections 


l66  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

rule  and  absorb  the  man,  and  make  his  happiness 
depend  on  a  person  or  persons.  But  the  warm 
loves  and  fears  that  swept  over  us  as  clouds  must 
lose  their  finite  character,  and  blend  with  God,  to 
attain  their  own  perfection."  "  Before  that  heaven 
which  our  presentiments  foreshow  us,  we  cannot 
easily  praise  any  form  of  life  we  have  seen  or  read 
of.  Pressed  on  our  attention,  the  saints  and  demi- 
gods whom  history  worships  fatigue  and  invade. 
The  soul  gives  itself,  alone,  original,  and  pure,  to 
the  Lonely,  Original,  and  Pure,  who  on  that  con- 
dition gladly  inhabits  it."  "  The  higher  the  style 
we  demand  of  friendship,  of  course  the  less  easy 
to  establish  it  with  flesh  and  blood.  We  walk 
alone  in  the  world.  Friends  such  as  we  desire  are 
dreams  and  fables.  But  a  sublime  hope  cheers 
ever  the  faithful  heart,  that  elsewhere,  in  other 
regions  of  the  universal  power,  souls  are  now  act- 
ing, enduring,  daring,  which  can  love  us  and  which 
we  can  love." 

"I  do  then  with  my  friends  as  I  do  with  my 
books.  I  would  have  them  where  I  can  find  them, 
but  I  seldom  use  them.  We  must  have  society  on 
our  own  terms,  and  admit  or  exclude  it  on  the 
slightest  cause.  I  cannot  afford  to  speak  much 
with  my  friend.  Then,  though  I  prize  my  friends, 
I  cannot  afford  to  talk  with  them  and  study  their 


PLATONIC   SUBORDINATION  1 67 

visions,  lest  I  lose  my  own.  It  would  indeed  give 
me  a  certain  household  joy  to  quit  this  lofty  seek- 
ing, this  spiritual  astronomy  or  search  of  stars, 
and  come  down  to  warm  sympathies  with  you ; 
but  then  I  know  well  I  shall  mourn  always  the 
vanishing  of  my  mighty  gods."  "True  love  tran- 
scends the  unworthy  object  and  dwells  and  broods 
on  the  eternal,  and  when  the  poor  interposed  mask 
crumbles,  it  is  not  sad,  but  feels  rid  of  so  much 
earth,  and  feels  its  independency  the  surer." 

Here  you  have  Plato  and  Thomas  ^  Kempis  in 
the  elegant  garb  of  a  heretical  transcendentalist. 
But  you  get  the  same  dualism  of  finite  and  infinite, 
perfect  and  imperfect ;  unworthy,  crumbling  earth- 
mask  to  be  gotten  rid  of  here  on  earth,  and  the 
stars  to  be  sought  out  and  gazed  at  up  in  heaven. 

The  combat  of  the  higher  against  the  lower  is 
one  in  which  we  must  all  engage ;  and  no  doubt 
in  order  to  win  we  must  at  times  keep  the  lower 
solicitations  at  arm's-length.  If,  however,  what 
appeals  to  us  in  the  name  of  the  highest  counsels 
any  relaxing  of  definite  obligation,  any  alienation 
from  the  man  or  woman  whom  social  institutions 
have  placed  closest  by  our  side ;  any  disloyalty  to 
the  plain  companions  and  humble  associates  whom 
society  or  business  places  in  our  way ;  any  break- 
ing  of  social  bonds   which   generations  of    self- 


l68  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

sacrifice  and  self-control  have  laboriously  woven, 
and  centuries  of  experience  have  approved  as 
beneficent;  then  it  is  time  to  abandon  Plato,  or 
rather  those  who  have  assumed  to  wear  his  mantle, 
and  look  for  personal  guidance  to  those  greater 
masters  who  have  transcended  the  antithesis  of 
higher  and  lower,  which  it  was  Plato's  great  mis- 
sion to  make  so  sharp  and  clear.  The  principle 
of  such  a  reconciUation  we  shall  find  in  Aristotle ; 
its  complete  accomplishment  we  shall  find  in 
Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  ARISTOTELIAN  SENSE  OF  PROPORTION 

I 
Aristotle's  objections  to  previous  systems 

Our  principles  of  personality  thus  far,  though 
increasingly  complex,  have  all  been  compara- 
tively simple.  To  get  the  maximum  of  pleasure ; 
to  keep  the  universal  law;  to  subordinate  lower 
impulses  to  higher  according  to  some  fixed  scale 
of  value,  are  all  principles  which  are  easy  to 
grasp  and  by  no  means  difficult  to  apply.  The 
fundamental  trouble  with  them  all  is  that  they  are 
too  easy.  Life  is  not  the  cut-and-dried  affair 
which  they  presuppose.  A  man  might  have  a  lot 
of  pleasure,  and  yet  be  contemptible.  He  might 
keep  all  the  commandments,  and  yet  be  no  better 
than  a  Pharisee.  Even  Plato's  principle  in  actual 
practice  has  not  always  escaped  the  awful  abyss  of 
asceticism. 

In  opposition  to  Epicurus  Aristotle  says,  "  Pleas- 
ure is  not  the  good  and  all  pleasures  are  not  desir- 
able.    No  one  would  choose  to  live  on  condition 

169 


I/O  FROM   EPICURUS  TO    CHRIST 

of  having  no  more  intellect  than  a  child  all  his  life, 
even  though  he  were  to  enjoy  to  the  full  the  pleas- 
ures of  a  child.  With  regard  to  the  pleasures  which 
all  admit  to  be  base,  we  must  deny  that  they  are 
pleasures  at  all,  except  to  those  whose  nature  is 
corrupt.  What  the  good  man  thinks  is  pleasure 
will  be  pleasure ;  what  he  delights  in  will  be  truly 
pleasant.  Those  pleasures  which  perfect  the  activity 
of  the  perfect  and  truly  happy  man  may  be  called 
in  the  truest  sense  the  pleasures  of  a  man.  The 
pleasure  which  is  proper  to  a  good  activity  is  there- 
fore good ;  that  attached  to  a  bad  one  is  bad.  As, 
then,  activities  differ,  so  do  the  pleasures  which 
accompany  them." 

In  our  discussion  of  Epicureanism  we  saw  that 
the  principle  of  pleasure  consistently  carried  out 
produced  bad  results,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Tito  Me- 
lema,  developed  the  most  contemptible  character. 
Aristotle  shows  conclusively  why  this  must  be  so. 
Pleasure  is  the  sign  and  seal  of  healthful  exercise 
of  function.  A  life  which  has  all  its  powers  in 
effective  and  well-proportioned  exercise  will,  indeed, 
be  a  life  crowned  with  pleasure.  You  cannot, 
however,  reverse  this  proposition,  as  the  Epicurean 
attempts  to  do,  and  say  that  a  life  which  seeks  the 
maximum  of  pleasure  will  inevitably  have  the 
healthy  and  proportionate  exercise  of  function  as 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF  PROPORTION       I /I 

its  consequent.  According  to  Aristotle  healthy 
exercise  of  function  in  a  well-proportioned  life  in 
devotion  to  wide  social  ends  and  permanent  per- 
sonal interests,  is  the  cause  of  which  happiness  is 
the  appropriate  and  inevitable  effect.  Seek  the 
cause  and  you  will  get  the  effect.  Seek  directly 
the  effect,  and  you  will  miss  both  the  cause  you 
neglect  and  the  effect  which  only  the  cause  can 
bring.  The  criticism  which  we  quoted  from  George 
Eliot  on  the  career  of  Melema  is  the  quintessence 
of  the  Aristotelian  doctrine.  To  put  it  in  a  figure : 
Build  a  good  fire  and  warm  your  room,  and  the 
mercury  in  the  thermometer  will  rise.  The  cause 
produces  the  effect  But  it  does  not  follow 
that  because  you  raise  the  mercury  in  the  ther- 
mometer by  breathing  on  the  bulb,  or  holding 
it  in  your  hand,  that  the  fire  will  bum,  or  the 
room  will  be  warmed.  The  Epicureans  and  hed- 
onists are  people  who  go  about  with  the  clinical 
thermometer  of  pleasure  under  their  tongues  all 
the  time,  and  expect  to  see  the  world  lighted  with 
benevolence  and  warmed  with  love  in  consequence. 
Aristotle  bids  them  take  their  clinical  thermometers 
out  of  their  mouths;  stop  fingering  their  emotional 
pulse ;  go  to  work  about  some  useful  business ; 
pursue  some  large  and  generous  end ;  and  then,  not 
otherwise,  in  case  from  time  to  time  they  have  occa- 


172  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

sion  to  feel  their  pulse  and  take  their  temperature, 
they  will  as  a  matter  of  fact  find  that  they  are  normal. 
But  it  isn't  taking  the  temperature  and  feeling 
the  pulse  that  makes  them  morally  sound;  it  is 
doing  their  proper  work  and  keeping  in  vigorous 
exercise  that  gives  them  the  healthy  pulse  and 
normal  temperature. 

There  are,  however,  two  apparently  contradictory 
teachings  about  pleasure  in  Aristotle,  and  it  is  a 
good  test  of  our  grasp  of  his  doctrine  to  see 
whether  we  can  reconcile  them.  First  he  says, 
"  In  all  cases  we  must  be  especially  on  our  guard 
against  pleasant  things,  and  against  pleasure ;  for 
we  can  scarce  judge  her  impartially.  And  so,  in 
our  behaviour  toward  her,  we  should  imitate  the 
behaviour  of  the  old  counsellors  toward  Helen,  and 
in  all  cases  repeat  their  saying :  If  we  dismiss 
her,  we  shall  be  less  likely  to  go  wrong."  "  It  is 
pleasure  that  moves  us  to  do  what  is  base,  and 
pain  that  moves  us  to  refrain  from  what  is  noble." 

On  the  other  hand  he  says :  "  The  pleasure  or 
pain  that  accompanies  the  acts  must  be  taken  as  a 
test  of  character.  He  who  faces  danger  with  pleas- 
ure, or,  at  any  rate,  without  pain,  is  courageous, 
but  he  to  whom  this  is  painful  is  a  coward.  Indeed 
we  all  more  or  less  make  pleasure  our  test  in  judg- 
ing actions." 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION       1 73 

Can  we  reconcile  these  two  seemingly  contra- 
dictory statements  ?  Perfectly,  On  the  one  hand 
if  we  do  an  act  simply  for  the  pleasure  it  will  give, 
without  first  asking  how  the  proposed  act  will  fit 
into  our  permanent  plan  of  life,  we  are  pretty  sure 
to  go  astray.  For  pleasure  registers  the  goodness 
of  the  isolated  act ;  not  the  goodness  of  the  act  as 
related  to  the  whole  plan  of  life.  Thus  if  I  drink 
strong  coffee  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  the 
taste  is  pleasant  and  the  immediate  effect  is  stim- 
ulating. But  if  it  keeps  me  awake  half  the 
night  and  unfits  me  for  the  duties  of  the  next  day, 
in  spite  of  the  pleasure  gained,  the  act  is  wrong. 
And  it  is  wrong,  not  fundamentally  because  of 
the  pains  of  wakefulness  it  brings;  it  is  wrong 
because  it  takes  out  of  my  life  as  a  whole,  and  my 
contribution  to  the  life  of  the  world,  something 
for  which  the  petty  transient  pleasure  I  gained  at 
the  moment  of  indulgence  is  no  compensation 
whatsoever.  Is  not  Aristotle  right  ?  Do  we  not 
pity  as  a  miserable  weakling,  hardly  fit  to  have 
been  graduated  from  the  nursery,  any  man  or 
woman  who  will  let  the  mere  physical  sensation  of 
a  few  moments  at  the  end  of  an  evening  count 
so  much  as  the  dust  in  the  balance  against  the 
efficiency  of  the  coming  forenoon's  life  and  work  } 

If  we  see  this  half  of  Aristotle's  truth,  we  see 


174  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

that  the  other  is  not  its  contradiction  but  its  com- 
plement. If  we  are  sorely  and  grievously  tempted 
by  the  coffee,  if  we  give  it  up  with  pain,  if  saying 
"  No,  I  thank  you,"  comes  fearfully  hard,  if  we 
cannot  forego  it  cheerfully  without  so  much  as 
seriously  considering  the  drinking  of  it  as  possible 
for  us,  why  then  it  reveals  how  little  we  care  for  the 
life  and  work  of  the  morrow ;  and  since  life  and 
work  are  but  a  succession  of  to-morrows,  how  little 
we  care  for  our  life  and  work  anyway.  If  we  had 
great  aims  burning  in  our  minds  and  hearts,  wide 
interests  to  which  body  and  soul  were  devoted, 
it  would  not  be  a  pain,  it  would  be  a  pleasure,  to 
give  up  for  the  sake  of  them  ten  thousand  times 
as  big  a  thing  as  a  cup  of  coffee,  if  it  stood  in  the 
way  of  their  accomplishment.  Yes ;  Aristotle  is 
right  on  both  points.  Pleasure  isolated  from  our 
plan  of  life  and  followed  as  an  end  will  lead  us 
into  weakness  and  wickedness  every  time  we 
yield  to  its  insidious  solicitation.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  resolute  and  consistent  prosecution  of 
large  ends  and  generous  interests  will  make  a 
positive  pleasure  of  everything  we  either  endure 
or  do  to  promote,  those  ends  and  interests.  Pleas- 
ure directly  pursued  is  the  utter  demoralisation 
of  life.  Ends  and  interests,  pursued  for  their 
own  sakes,  inevitably  carry  with  them  a  host  of 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN    SENSE    OF   PROPORTION       1/5 

noble  pleasures,  and  the  power  to  conquer  and 
transform  what  to  the  aimless  life  would  be  intol- 
erable pains. 

Aristotle  rejects  the  Epicurean  principle  of 
pleasure;  because,  though  a  proof  that  isolated 
tendencies  are  satisfied,  it  is  no  adequate  criterion 
of  the  satisfaction  of  the  self  as  a  whole.  He 
rejects  the  Stoic  principle  of  conformity  to  law; 
because  it  fails  to  recognise  the  supreme  worth  of 
individuality.  He  rejects  the  Platonic  principle 
of  subordination  of  appetites  and  passions  to  a 
supreme  good  which  is  above  them ;  because  he 
dreads  above  all  things  the  blight  of  asceticism, 
and  strives  for  a  good  which  is  concrete  and 
practical. 

What,  then,  is  this  good,  which  is  neither  a  sum 
of  pleasures,  nor  conformity  to  law ;  nor  yet 
superiority  to  appetite  and  passion  ?  What  is 
this  principle  which  can  at  once  enjoy  pleasure  to 
the  full,  and  at  the  same  time  forego  it  gladly ; 
which  can  make  laws  for  itself  more  severe  than 
any  lawgiver  ever  dared  to  lay  down ;  and  yet  is 
not  afraid  to  break  any  law  which  its  own  con- 
ception of  good  requires  it  to  break ;  which  hon- 
ours all  our  elemental  appetites  and  passions,  uses 
money  and  honour  and  power  as  the  servants  of 
its  own  ends,   without  ever   being   enslaved   by 


1/6  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

them  ?  Evidently  we  are  now  on  the  track  of  a 
principle  infinitely  more  subtle  and  complex  than 
anything  the  pleasure-loving  Epicurean,  or  the 
formal  Stoic,  or  the  transcendental  Platonist  has 
ever  dreamed  of.  We  are  entering  the  presence 
of  the  world's  master  moralist ;  and  if  we  have 
ever  for  a  moment  supposed  that  either  of  these 
previous  systems  was  satisfactory  or  final,  it 
behooves  us  now  to  take  the  shoes  from  off  our 
feet,  and  reverently  listen  to  a  voice  as  much 
profounder  and  more  reasonable  than  them  all, 
as  they  are  superior  to  the  senseless  appetites  and 
blind  passions  of  the  mob.  For  if  we  have  a 
little  patience  with  his  subtlety,  and  can  endure 
the  temporary  shock  of  his  apparent  laxity,  he  will 
admit  us  to  the  very  holy  of  holies  of  personality. 

II 

THE  SOCIAL  NATURE   OF  MAN 

Before  coming  to  Aristotle's  positive  doctrine 
we  must  consider  one  fundamental  axiom.  Man 
is  by  nature  a  social  being.  Whatever  a  man 
seeks  has  a  necessary  and  inevitable  reference  to 
the  judgment  of  other  men,  and  the  interest  of 
society  as  a  whole.  Strip  a  man  of  his  relations 
and   you  have  no   man  left.      The   man  who  is 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      1 77 

neither  son,  brother,  husband,  father,  citizen, 
neighbour  or  workman,  is  inconceivable.  The 
good  which  a  man  seeks,  therefore,  will  express 
itself  consciously  or  unconsciously  in  terms  of 
other  men's  approval,  and  the  furtherance  of 
interests  which  he  inevitably  shares  with  them. 
The  Greek  word  for  private,  peculiar  to  myself, 
unrelated  to  the  thought  or  interest  of  anybody 
else,  is  our  word  for  idiot.  The  New  Testament 
uses  this  word  to  describe  the  place  to  which 
Judas  went;  a  place  which  just  suited  such  a  man 
as  he,  and  was  fit  for  nobody  else.  Now  a  man 
who  tries  to  be  his  own  scientist,  or  his  own  law- 
giver, or  his  own  statesman,  or  his  own  business 
manager,  or  his  own  poet,  or  his  own  architect, 
without  reference  to  the  standards  and  expectations 
of  his  fellow-men,  is  just  an  idiot;  or,  as  we  say,  a 
"  crank."  A  wise  man  may  defy  these  standards. 
The  reformer  often  must  do  so.  But  if  he  is 
really  wise,  if  he  is  a  true  reformer,  he  must  reckon 
with  them ;  he  must  understand  them ;  he  must 
appeal  to  the  actual  or  possible  judgment  and  in- 
terest of  his  fellows  for  the  confirmation  of  what 
he  says  and  the  justification  of  what  he  does. 
This  social  reference  of  all  our  thoughts  and 
actions,  which  Aristotle  grasped  by  intuition,  psy- 
chology in  our  day  is  laboriously  and  analytically 


178  FROM    EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

seeking  to  confirm.  Aristotle  lays  it  down  as  an 
axiom,  that  a  man  who  does  not  devote  himself 
to  some  section  of  the  social  and  spiritual  worid, 
if  such  a  being  were  conceivable,  would  be  no 
man  at  all.  Family,  or  friends,  or  reputation,  or 
country,  or  God  are  there  in  the  background, 
secretly  summoned  to  justify  our  every  thought 
and  word  and  deed. 

Because  man's  nature  is  social,  his  end  must 
be  social  also.  It  will  prevent  misunderstanding 
later,  if  we  put  the  question  squarely  here,  Does 
the  end  justify  the  means  ?  As  popularly  under- 
stood, most  emphatically  No.  The  support  of 
a  school  is  a  good  end.  Does  it  justify  the  raising 
of  money  by  a  lottery  ?  Certainly  not.  The  sup- 
port of  one's  family  is  a  good  end.  Does  it  justify 
drawing  a  salary  for  which  no  adequate  services 
are  rendered  ?    Certainly  not. 

Yet  if  we  push  the  question  farther,  and  ask 
why  these  particular  ends  do  not  justify  these 
particular  means,  we  discover  that  it  is  because 
these  means  employed  are  destructive  of  an  end 
vastly  higher  and  greater  than  the  particular 
ends  they  are  employed  to  serve.  They  break 
down  the  structure  and  undermine  the  foundations 
of  the  industrial  and  social  order ;  an  end  infinitely 
more  important  than  the  maintenance  of  any  par^ 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE  OF  PROPORTION      1 79 

ticular  school,  or  the  support  of  any  individual 
family.  Hence  these  means  are  not  to  be  judged  by 
their  promotion  of  certain  specific  ends,  but  by  their 
failure  to  promote  the  greatest  and  best  end  of  all ; 
the  comprehensive  welfare  of  society  as  a  whole,  of 
which  all  institutions  and  families  and  individuals 
are  but  subordinate  members. 

Throughout  our  discussion  of  Aristotle  we  must 
understand  that  the  word  "  end  "  always  has  this 
large  social  reference,  and  includes  the  highest 
social  service  of  which  the  man  is  capable.  If 
we  attempt  to  apply  to  particular  private  ends  of 
our  own  what  Aristotle  applies  to  the  universal 
end  at  which  all  men  ought  to  aim,  we  shall  make 
his  teaching  a  pretext  for  the  grossest  crimes, 
and  reduce  it  to  little  more  than  sophisticated 
selfishness.  With  this  understanding  of  his 
terms,  we  may  venture  to  plunge  boldly  into  his 
system  and  state  it  in  its  most  paradoxical  and 
startling  form. 

Ill 

RIGHT  AND  WRONG  DETERMINED   BY  THE  END 

We  are  not  either  good  or  bad  at  the  start. 
Pleasure  in  itself  is  neither  good  nor  bad.  Laws 
in  themselves  are  neither  good  nor  bad.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  with  Plato  that  some  faculties 


l80  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

are  so  high  that  they  always  ought  to  be  exer- 
cised, and  others  are  so  low  that  as  a  rule  they 
ought  to  be  suppressed.  The  right  and  wrong 
of  eating  and  drinking,  of  work  and  play,  of  sex 
and  society,  of  property  and  politics,  lie  not  in 
the  elemental  acts  involved.  All  of  these  things 
are  right  for  one  man  in  one  set  of  circumstances, 
wrong  for  another  man  in  another  set  of  circum- 
stances. We  cannot  say  that  a  man  who  takes  a 
vow  of  poverty  is  either  a  better  or  a  worse  man 
than  a  multi-millionnaire.  We  cannot  say  that  the 
monk  who  takes  a  vow  of  celibacy  is  a  purer  man 
than  one  who  does  not.  For  the  very  fact  that  one 
is  compelled  to  take  a  vow  of  poverty  or  celibacy 
is  a  sign  that  these  elemental  impulses  are  not 
effectively  and  satisfactorily  related  to  the  normal 
ends  they  are  naturally  intended  to  subserve. 
All  attempts  to  put  virginity  above  motherhood, 
to  put  poverty  above  riches,  to  put  obscurity 
above  fame  are,  from  the  Aristotelian  point  of 
view,  essentially  immoral.  For  they  all  assume 
that  there  can  be  badness  in  external  things, 
wrong  in  isolated  actions,  vice  in  elemental  appe- 
tites, and  sin  in  natural  passions ;  whereas  Aristotle 
lays  down  the  fundamental  principle  that  the  only 
place  where  either  badness  or  wrong  or  vice  or 
sin  can  reside  is  in  the  relation  in  which   these 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE  OF  PROPORTION      l8l 

external  things  and  particular  actions  stand  to 
the  clearly  conceived  and  deliberately  cherished 
end  which  the  man  is  seeking  to  promote.  A 
simpler  way  of  saying  the  same  thing,  but  a  way 
so  simple  and  familiar  as  to  be  in  danger  of 
missing  the  whole  point,  is  to  say  that  virtue 
and  vice  reside  exclusively  in  the  wills  of  free 
agents.  That,  every  one  will  admit.  But  will 
is  the  pursuit  of  ends.  A  will  that  seeks  no 
ends  is  a  will  that  wills  nothing ;  in  other  words, 
no  will  at  all.  Whether  an  act  is  wrong  or  right, 
then,  depends  on  the  whole  plan  of  life  of  which 
it  is  a  part ;  on  the  relation  in  which  it  stands  to 
one's  permanent  interests.  For  these  many  years 
I  have  defied  class  after  class  of  college  students 
to  bring  in  a  single  example  of  any  elemental 
appetite  or  passion  which  is  intrinsically  bad; 
which  in  all  circumstances  and  relations  is  evil. 
And  never  yet  has  any  student  brought  me  one 
such  case.  If  brandy  will  tide  the  weak  heart 
over  the  crisis  that  follows  a  surgical  operation, 
then  that  glass  of  brandy  is  just  as  good  and 
precious  as  the  dear  life  it  saves.  The  proposition 
that  sexual  love  is  intrinsically  evil,  and  those  who 
take  vows  of  celibacy  are  intrinsically  superior, 
is  true  only  on  condition  that  racial  suicide  is  the 
greatest  good,   and  all  the  sweet  ties  of  home 


1 82  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

and  family  and  parenthood  and  brotherly  love 
are  evils  which  it  is  our  duty  to  combat.  To 
deny  that  wealth  is  good  is  only  possible  to  him 
who  is  prepared  to  go  farther  and  denounce 
civilisation  as  a  calamity.  He  who  brands  ambi- 
tion as  intrinsically  evil  must  be  prepared  to  herd 
with  swine,  and  share  contentedly  their  fare  of 
husks. 

The  foundation  of  personality,  therefore,  is  the 
power  to  clearly  grasp  an  imaginary  condition  of 
ourselves  which  is  preferable  to  any  practical 
alternative ;  and  then  translate  that  potential 
picture  into  an  accomplished  fact.  Whoever  lives 
at  a  lower  level  than  this  constant  translation  of 
pictured  potency  into  energetic  reality:  whoever, 
seeing  the  picture  of  the  self  he  wants  to  be, 
suffers  aught  less  noble  and  less  imperative  than 
that  to  determine  his  action  misses  the  mark  of 
personality.  Whoever  sees  the  picture,  and  holds 
it  before  his  mind  so  clearly  that  all  external 
things  which  favour  it  are  chosen  for  its  sake,  and 
all  proposed  actions  which  would  hinder  it  are 
remorselessly  rejected  in  its  holy  name  and  by  its 
mighty  power;  —  he  rises  to  the  level  of  person- 
ality, and  his  personality  is  of  that  clear,  strong, 
joyous,  compelling,  conquering,  triumphant  sort 
which  alone  is  worthy  of  the  name. 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      1 83 

How  much  deeper  this  goes  than  anything  we 
have  had  before  !  A  man  comes  up  for  judgment. 
If  Epicurus  chances  to  be  seated  on  the  throne,  he 
asks  the  candidate,  "  Have  you  had  a  good 
time  ? "  If  he  has,  he  opens  the  gates  of  Para- 
dise ;  if  he  has  not,  he  bids  him  be  off  to  the  place 
of  torment  where  people  who  don't  know  how  to 
enjoy  themselves  ought  to  go. 

The  Stoic  asks  him  whether  he  has  kept  all 
the  commandments.  If  he  has,  then  he  may  be 
promoted  to  serve  the  great  Commander  in  other 
departments  of  the  cosmic  order.  If  he  has 
broken  the  least  of  them,  no  matter  on  what 
pretext,  or  under  what  temptation,  he  is  irrevo- 
cably doomed.  Plato  asks  him  how  well  he  has 
managed  to  keep  under  his  appetites  and  passions. 
If  the  man  has  risen  above  them,  Plato  will 
promote  him  to  seats  nearer  the  perfect  goodness 
of  the  gods.  If  he  has  slipped  or  failed,  then  he 
must  return  for  longer  probation  in  the  prison- 
house  of  sense. 

Aristotle's  judgment  seat  is  a  very  different 
place.  A  man  comes  to  him  who  has  had  a  very 
sorry  time :  who  has  broken  many  command- 
ments; who  has  yielded  time  and  again  to  sen- 
suous desires ;  yet  who  is  a  good  husband,  a 
kind  father,  an  honest  workman,  a  loyal  citizen, 


1 84  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

a  disinterested  scientist  or  artist,  a  lover  of  his 
fellows,  a  worshipper  of  God's  beauty  and  benefi- 
cence; and  in  spite  of  the  sad  time  he  has  had, 
in  spite  of  the  laws  he  has  broken,  in  spite  of  the 
appetites  which  have  proved  too  strong  for  him, 
Aristotle  gives  him  his  hand,  and  bids  him  go  up 
higher.  For  that  man  stands  in  genuine  rela- 
tions to  some  aspects  of  the  great  social  end 
to  which  he  devotes  himself.  And  because  some 
portion  of  the  real  world  has  been  made  better 
by  the  conception  of  it  he  has  cherished,  and  the 
fidelity  with  which  he  has  translated  his  concep- 
tion into  fact,  therefore  a  share  in  the  great  glory 
of  the  splendid  whole  belongs  of  right  to  him. 
Good  honest  work,  after  an  ideal  plan,  to  the 
full  measure  of  his  powers,  with  wise  selection 
of  appropriate  means,  gives  each  individual  his 
place  and  rank  in  the  vast  workshop  wherein 
the  eternal  thoughts  of  God,  revealed  to  men  as 
their  several  ideals,  are  wrought  out  into  the 
actuality  of  the  social,  economic,  political,  aes- 
thetic and  spiritual  order  of  the  world. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  man  of  scattered  and 
unfruitful  pleasures,  the  man  of  merely  clear 
conscience,  pure  life,  unstained  reputation,  with 
his  boast  of  rites  observed,  and  ceremonies  per- 
formed,  and   laws   unbroken,    "faultily  faultless. 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE  OF  PROPORTION       185 

icily  regular,  splendidly  null,"  is  the  man  above  all 
others  whom  Aristotle  cannot  endure. 

Do  you  wish,  then,  to  know  precisely  where  you 
stand  in  the  scale  of  personality?  Here  is  the 
test.  How  large  a  section  of  this  world  do  you 
care  for,  in  such  a  vital,  responsible  way,  that  you 
are  thinking  about  its  welfare,  forming  schemes 
for  its  improvement,  bending  your  energies  toward 
its  advancement .''  Do  you  care  for  your  pro- 
fession in  that  way  ?  Do  you  care  for  your 
family  like  that  ?  Do  you  love  your  country 
with  such  jealous  solicitude  for  its  honour  and 
prosperity  ?  Can  you  honestly  say  that  your 
neighbour  gets  represented  in  your  mind  in  this 
imaginative,  sympathetic,  helpful  way  ?  Do  you 
think  of  God's  great  universe  as  something  in 
the  goodness  of  which  you  rejoice,  and  for  the 
welfare  of  which  you  are  earnestly  enUsted  ? 
Begin  down  at  the  bottom,  with  your  stomach, 
your  pocket-book,  your  calling  list,  and  go  up 
the  scale  until  you  come  to  these  wider  interests, 
and  mark  the  point  where  you  cease  to  think 
how  these  things  might  be  better  than  they  are 
and  to  work  to  make  them  so,  and  that  point 
where  your  imagination  and  your  service  stops, 
and  your  indifference  and  irresponsibility  begins, 
will  show  you  precisely  how  you  stand   on  the 


1 86  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

rank-book  of  God.  The  magnitude  of  the  ends 
you  see  and  serve  is  the  measure  of  your  per- 
sonality. Personality  is  not  an  entity  we  carry 
around  in  our  spiritual  pockets.  It  is  an  energy, 
which  is  no  whit  larger  or  smaller  than  the  ends 
it  aims  at  and  the  work  it  does.  If  you  are  not 
doing  anything  or  caring  for  anybody,  or  devoted 
to  any  end,  you  will  not  be  called  up  at  some 
future  time  and  formally  punished  for  your  neg- 
ligence. Plato  might  flatter  your  self-importance 
with  that  notion,  but  not  Aristotle.  Aristotle 
tells  you,  not  that  your  soul  will  be  punished 
hereafter,  but  that  it  is  lost  already. 

Goodness  does  not  consist  in  doing  or  refrain- 
ing from  doing  this  or  that  particular  thing. 
It  depends  on  the  whole  aim  and  purpose  of 
the  man  who  does  it,  or  refrains  from  doing  it. 
Anything  which  a  good  man  does  as  part  of 
the  best  plan  of  life  is  made  thereby  a  good 
act.  And  anything  that  a  bad  man  does,  as  part 
of  a  bad  plan  of  life,  becomes  thereby  an  evil 
act.  Precisely  the  same  external  act  is  good 
for  one  man  and  bad  for  another.  An  example 
or  two  will  make  this  clear. 

Two  men  seek  political  office.  For  one  man 
it  is  the  gate  of  heaven ;  to  the  other  it  is  the 
door  to  hell.     One  man  has  established  himself 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE    OF    PROPORTION       1 8/ 

in  a  business  or  profession  in  which  he  can  earn 
an  honest  living  and  support  his  family.  He 
has  acquired  sufficient  standing  in  his  business 
so  that  he  can  turn  it  over  temporarily  to  his 
partners  or  subordinates.  He  has  solved  his 
own  problem ;  and  he  has  strength,  time,  energy, 
capacity,  money,  which  he  can  give  to  solving 
the  problems  of  the  public.  Were  he  to  shirk 
public  office,  or  evade  it,  or  fail  to  take  all  legiti- 
mate means  to  secure  it,  he  would  be  a  coward, 
a  traitor,  a  parasite  on  the  body  politic.  For 
there  is  good  work  to  be  done,  which  he  is  able 
to  do,  and  can  afford  to  do,  without  unreasonable 
sacrifice  of  himself  or  his  family.  Hence  public 
office  is  for  this  man  the  gateway  of  heaven. 

The  other  man  has  not  mastered  any  business  or 
profession ;  he  has  not  made  himself  indispensa- 
ble to  any  employer  or  firm ;  he  has  no  permanent 
means  of  supporting  himself  and  his  family.  He 
sees  a  political  office  in  which  he  can  get  a  little 
more  salary  for  doing  a  good  deal  less  work 
than  is  possible  in  his  present  position.  He 
seeks  the  office,  as  a  means  of  getting  his  living 
out  of  the  public.  From  that  day  forth  he  joins 
the  horde  of  mere  office-seekers,  aiming  to  get 
out  of  the  public  a  living  he  is  too  lazy,  or  too 
incompetent,   or   too    proud   to    earn   in    private 


1 88        FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

employment.  Thus  the  very  same  external  act, 
which  was  the  other  man's  strait,  narrow  gate- 
way to  heaven,  is  for  this  man  the  broad,  easy 
descent  into  hell. 

Two  women  join  the  same  woman's  club,  and 
take  part  in  the  same  programme.  One  of  them 
has  her  heart  in  her  home;  has  fulfilled  all  the 
sweet  charities  of  daughter,  sister,  wife,  or  mother ; 
and  in  order  to  bring  back  to  these  loved  ones 
at  home  wider  interests,  larger  friendships,  and  a 
richer  and  more  varied  interest  in  life,  has  gone 
out  into  the  work  and  life  of  the  club.  No  angel 
in  heaven  is  better  employed  than  she  in  the 
preparation  and  delivery  of  her  papers  and  her 
attendance  on  committee  meetings  and  afternoon 
teas. 

The  other  woman  finds  home  life  dull  and 
monotonous.  She  Hkes  to  get  away  from  her 
children.  She  craves  excitement,  flattery,  fame, 
social  importance.  She  is  restless,  irritable,  out 
of  sorts,  censorious,  complaining  at  home;  ani- 
mated, gracious,  affable,  complaisant  abroad.  For 
drudgery  and  duty  she  has  no  strength,  taste,  or 
talent;  and  the  thought  of  these  things  are 
enough  to  give  her  dyspepsia,  insomnia,  and 
nervous  prostration.  But  for  all  sorts  of  public 
functions,  for  the  preparation  of  reports,  and  the 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      1 89 

organisation  of  new  charitable  and  philanthropic 
and  social  schemes,  she  has  all  the  energy  of  a 
steam-engine,  the  power  of  a  dynamo.  When 
this  woman  joins  a  new  club,  or  writes  a  new 
paper,  or  gets  a  new  office,  though  she  does 
not  a  single  thing  more  than  her  angel  sister 
who  sits  by  her  side,  she  is  playing  the  part  of 
a  devil. 

It  is  not  what  one  does ;  it  is  the  whole  purpose 
of  life  consciously  or  unconsciously  expressed  in 
the  doing  that  measures  the  worth  of  the  man 
or  woman  who  does  it.  At  the  family  table, 
at  the  bench  in  the  shop,  at  the  desk  in  the 
office,  in  the  seats  at  the  theatre,  in  the  ranks  of 
the  army,  in  the  pews  of  the  church,  saint  and 
sinner  sit  side  by  side ;  and  often  the  keenest  out- 
ward observer  cannot  detect  the  slightest  differ- 
ence in  the  particular  things  that  they  do.  The 
good  man  is  he  who,  in  each  act  he  does  or  refrains 
from  doing,  is  seeking  the  good  of  all  the  persons 
who  are  affected  by  his  action.  The  bad  man  is  the 
man  who,  whatever  he  does  or  refrains  from  doing, 
leaves  out  of  account  the  interests  of  some  of  the 
people  whom  his  action  is  sure  to  affect.  Is  there 
any  sphere  of  human  welfare  to  which  you  are  in- 
different? Are  there  any  people  in  the  world 
whose  interests  you  deliberately  disregard  ?    Then, 


IQO  FROM    EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

no  matter  how  many  acts  of  charity  and  philan- 
thropy, and  industry  and  pubHc    spirit  you  per- 
form —  acts  which  would  be  good  if  a  good  man 
did  them  —  in  spite^  of  them  all,  yo^re  to  that      . 
extent  an  evil  man..^%^7i'^*  ^J^  J  ^^  ^ 

We  have,  then,  clearly  in  minu  Arisfode's  first 
great  concept.  The  end  of  life,  which  he  calls 
happiness,  he  defines  as  the  identification  of  one's 
self  with  some  large  social  or  intellectual  object, 
and  the  devotion  of  all  one's  powers  to  its  disinter- 
ested service.  So  far  forth  it  is  Carlyle's  gospel 
of  the  blessedness  of  work  in  a  worthy  cause. 
"  Blessed  is  he  who  has  found  his  work ;  let  him 
ask  no  other  blessedness.  He  has  a  work,  a  life 
purpose ;  he  has  found  it,  and  will  follow  it.  The 
only  happiness  a  brave  man  ever  troubled  himself 
with  asking  much  about  was  happiness  enough  to 
get  his  work  done.  Whatsoever  of  morality  and 
of  intelligence;  what  of  patience,  perseverance, 
faithfulness  of  method,  insight,  ingenuity,  energy ; 
in  a  word,  whatsoever  of  strength  the  man  had  in 
him  will  lie  written  in  the  work  he  does.  To 
work :  why,  it  is  to  try  himself  against  Nature  and 
her  everlasting  unerring  laws;  these  will  tell  a 
true  verdict  as  to  the  man." 

When  we  read  Carlyle,  we  are  apt  to  think  such 
words   merely  exaggerated  rhetoric.     Now  Aris- 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION       I9I 

totle  says  the  same  thing  in  the  cold,  calculated 
terms  of  precise  philosophy.  A  man  is  what  he 
does.  He  can  do  nothing  except  what  he  first 
sees  as  an  unaccomplished  idea,  and  then  bends 
all  his  energies  to  accomplish.  In  working  out  his 
ideas  and  making  them  real,  he  at  the  ^ame  time 
works  out  his  own  powers,  and  becomes  a  living 
force,  a  working  will  in  the  world.  And  since  the 
soul  is  just  this  working  will,  the  man  has  so  much 
soul,  no  more,  no  less,  than  he  registers  in  manual 
or  mental  work  performed.  To  be  able  to  point 
to  some  sphere  of  external  reality,  a  bushel  of 
corn,  a  web  of  cloth,  a  printed  page,  a  healthful 
tenement,  an  educated  youth,  a  moral  community, 
and  say  that  these  things  would  not  have  been 
there  in  the  outward  world,  if  they  had  not  first 
been  in  your  mind  as  an  idea  controlling  your 
thought  and  action  ;  —  this  is  to  point  to  the  ex- 
ternal and  visible  counterpart  and  measure  of  the 
invisible  and  internal  energy  which  is  your  life,  i  ^> 
your  soul,  your  self,  your  personality.  *^  6^#i4.^^-*vU4^i/5 

IV 

THE   NEED   OF   INSTRUMENTS 

Aristotle's    first    doctrine,    then,    is    that    we 
must  work  for  worthy  ends.     The  second  follows 


192  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

directly  from  it.  We  must  have  tools  to  work 
with  ;  means  by  which  to  gain  our  ends.  General 
Gordon,  who  was  something  of  a  Platonist,  re- 
marked to  Cecil  Rhodes,  who  was  a  good  deal  of 
an  Aristotelian,  that  he  once  had  a  whole  room 
full  of  gold  offered  him,  and  declined  to  take  it. 
"  I  should  have  taken  it,"  replied  Mr.  Rhodes. 
"  What  is  the  use  of  having  great  schemes  if  you 
haven't  the  means  to  carry  them  out  ? "  As  Aris- 
totle says :  "  Happiness  plainly  requires  external 
goods ;  for  it  is  impossible,  or  at  least  not  easy, 
to  act  nobly  without  some  furniture  of  fortune. 
There  are  many  things  that  can  be  done  only 
through  instruments,  so  to  speak,  such  as  friends 
and  wealth  and  political  influence ;  and  there  are 
some  things  whose  absence  takes  the  bloom  off 
our  happiness,  as  good  birth,  the  blessing  of  chil- 
dren, personal  beauty.  Happiness,  then,  seems  to 
stand  in  need  of  this  kind  of  prosperity." 

How  different  this  from  all  our  previous  teach- 
ings! The  Epicurean  wants  little  wealth,  no 
family,  no  official  station ;  because  all  these  things 
involve  so  much  care  and  bother.  The  Stoic 
barely  tolerates  them  as  indifferent.  Plato  took 
especial  pains  to  deprive  his  guardians  of  most  of 
these  very  things.  Aristotle  on  this  point  is  per- 
fectly sane.     He  says  you  want  them  ;  because,  to 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      1 93 

the  fullest  life  and  the  largest  work,  they  are  well- 
nigh  indispensable.  The  editor  of  a  metropolitan 
newspaper,  the  president  of  a  railroad,  the  corpo- 
ration attorney  cannot  live  their  lives  and  do  their 
work  effectively  without  comfortable  homes,  enjoy- 
able vacations,  social  connections,  educational 
opportunities,  which  cost  a  great  deal  of  money. 
For  them  to  despise  money  would  be  to  despise 
the  conditions  of  their  own  effective  living,  to  pour 
contempt  on  their  own  souls. 

Is  Aristotle,  then,  a  gross  materialist,  a  mere 
money-getter,  pleasure-lover,  office-seeker?  Far 
from  it.  These  things  are  not  the  end  of  a  noble 
life,  but  means  by  which  to  serve  ends  far  worthier 
than  themselves.  To  make  these  things  the  ends 
of  life,  he  expUcitly  says  is  shameful  and  unnatural. 
The  good,  the  true  end,  is  "  something  which  is  a 
man's  own,  and  cannot  be  taken  away  from  him." 

Now  we  have  two  fundamental  Aristotelian  doc- 
trines. We  must  have  an  end,  some  section  of  the 
world  which  we  undertake  to  mould  according  to 
a  pattern  clearly  seen  and  firmly  grasped  in  our 
own  minds. 

Second,  we  must  have  instruments,  tools,  furni- 
ture of  fortune  in  the  shape  of  health,  wealth, 
influence,  power,  friends,  business  and  social  and 
political  connections  with  which  to  carry  out  our 


194  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

ends.  And  the  larger  and  nobler  our  ends,  the 
more  of  these  instruments  shall  we  require.  If, 
like  Cecil  Rhodes,  we  undertake  for  instance  to 
paint  the  map  of  Africa  British  red,  we  shall  want 
a  monopoly  of  the  product  of  the  Kimberley  and 
adjacent  diamond  mines.   /SJT^^^  *^  Q^U^i^^  ^^ 

V  '' 

THE  HAPPY  MEAN 

The  third  great  Aristotelian  principle  follows 
directly  from  these  two.  If  we  are  to  use  instru- 
ments for  some  great  end,  then  the  amount  of  the 
instruments  we  want,  and  the  extent  to  which  we 
shall  use  them,  will  obviously  be  determined  by  the 
end  at  which  we  aim.  We  must  take  just  so  much  of 
them  as  will  best  promote  that  end.  This  is  Aris- 
totle's much  misunderstood  but  most  characteristic 
doctrine  of  the  mean.  Approached  from  the  point 
of  view  which  we  have  already  gained,  this  doctrine 
of  the  mean  is  perfectly  intelligible,  and  altogether 
reasonable.  For  instance,  if  you  are  an  athlete, 
and  the  winning  of  a  foot-ball  game  is  your  end, 
and  you  have  an  invitation  to  a  ball  the  evening 
before  the  game,  what  is  the  right  and  reasonable 
thing  to  do?  Dancing  in  itself  is  good.  You 
enjoy  it.     You  would  like  to  go.     You  need  recrea- 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN    SENSE    OF   PROPORTION       1 95 

tion  after  the  long  period  of  training.  But  if  you 
are  wise,  you  will  decline.  Why  ?  Because  the 
excitement  of  the  ball,  the  late  hours,  the  physical 
effort,  the  nervous  expenditure  will  use  up  more 
energy  than  can  be  recovered  before  the  game 
comes  off  upon  the  morrow.  You  decline,  not 
because  the  ball  is  an  intrinsic  evil,  or  dancing  is 
intrinsically  bad,  or  recreation  is  inherently  inju- 
rious, but  because  too  much  of  these  things,  in  the 
precise  circumstances  in  which  you  are  placed,  with 
the  specific  end  you  have  in  view,  would  be  dis- 
astrous. On  the  other  hand,  will  you  have  no 
recreation  the  evening  before  the  game ;  but  simply 
sit  in  your  room  and  mope  ?  That  would  be  even 
worse  than  going  to  the  ball.  For  nature  abhors 
a  vacuum  in  the  mind  no  less  than  in  the  world  of 
matter.  If  you  sit  alone  in  your  room,  you  will 
begin  to  worry  about  the  game,  and  very  likely 
lose  your  night's  sleep,  and  be  utterly  unfitted  when 
the  time  arrives.  Too  little  recreation  in  these 
circumstances  is  as  fatal  as  too  much.  What  you 
want  is  just  enough  to  keep  your  mind  pleasantly 
diverted,  without  effort  or  exertion  on  your  part. 
If  the  glee  club  can  be  brought  around  to  sing 
some  jolly  songs,  if  a  funny  man  can  be  found  to 
tell  amusing  stories,  you  have  the  happy  mean; 
that  is,  just  enough  recreation  to  put  you  in  condi- 


196        FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

tion  for  a  night's  sound  sleep,  and  bring  you  to 
the  contest  on  the  morrow  in  prime  physical  and 
mental  condition. 

Aristotle,  in  his  doctrine  of  the  mean,  is  simply 
telling  us  that  this  problem  of  the  athlete  on  the 
night  before  the  contest  is  the  personal  problem  of 
us  all  every  day  of  our  lives. 

How  late  shall  the  student  study  at  night  ?  Shall 
he  keep  on  until  past  midnight  year  after  year.? 
If  he  does,  he  will  undermine  his  health,  lose  con- 
tact with  society,  and  defeat  those  ends  of  social 
usefulness  which  ought  to  be  part  of  every  worthy 
scholar's  cherished  end.  On  the  other  hand,  shall 
he  fritter  away  all  his  evenings  with  convivial 
fellows,  and  the  society  butterflies  ?  Too  much  of 
that  sort  of  thing  would  soon  put  an  end  to  schol- 
arship altogether.  His  problem  is  to  find  that 
amount  of  study  which  will  keep  him  sensitively 
alive  to  the  latest  problems  of  his  chosen  subject; 
and  yet  not  make  all  his  acquisitions  comparatively 
worthless  either  through  broken  health,  or  social 
estrangement  from  his  fellow-men.  How  rare  and 
precious  that  mean  is,  those  of  us  who  have  to  find 
college  professors  are  well  aware.  It  is  easy  to 
find  scores  of  men  who  know  their  subject  so  well 
that  they  know  nothing  and  nobody  else  aright. 
It  is  easy  to  find  jolly,  easy-going  fellows  who 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE  OF  PROPORTION      1 97 

would  not  object  to  positions  as  college  professors. 
But  the  man  who  has  enough  good  fellowship  and 
physical  vigour  to  make  his  scholarship  attractive 
and  effective,  and  enough  scholarship  to  make  his 
vigour  and  good  fellowship  intellectually  powerful 
and  personally  stimulating, — he  is  the  man  who  has 
hit  the  Aristotelian  mean ;  he  is  the  man  we  are  all 
after;  he  is  the  man  whom  we  would  any  of  us 
give  a  year's  salary  to  find. 

The  mean  is  not  midway  between  zero  and  the 
maximum  attainable.  As  Aristotle  says,  "  By  the 
mean  relatively  to  us  I  understand  that  which  is 
neither  too  much  nor  too  little  for  us ;  and  that  is 
not  one  and  the  same  for  all.  For  instance,  if  ten 
be  too  large  and  two  be  too  small,  if  we  take  six, 
we  take  the  mean  relatively  to  the  thing  itself,  or 
the  arithmetical  mean.  But  the  mean  relatively  to 
us  cannot  be  found  in  this  way.  If  ten  pounds  of 
food  is  too  much  for  a  given  man  to  eat,  and  two 
pounds  too  little,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
trainer  will  order  him  six  pounds;  for  that  also 
may  perhaps  be  too  much  for  the  man  in  question, 
or  too  little ;  too  little  for  Milo,  too  much  for  the 
beginner.  And  so  we  may  say  generally  that  a 
master  in  any  art  avoids  what  is  too  much  and 
what  is  too  little,  and  seeks  for  the  mean  and 
chooses    it  —  not   the    absolute    but   the    relative 


198  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

mean.  So  that  people  are  wont  to  say  of  a  good 
work,  that  nothing  could  be  taken  from  it  or  added 
to  it,  implying  that  excellence  is  destroyed  by  excess 
or  deficiency,  but  secured  by  observing  the  mean." 
The  Aristotelian  principle,  of  judging  a  situation 
on  its  merits,  and  subordinating  means  to  the  su- 
preme end,  was  never  more  clearly  stated  than  in 
Lincoln's  letter  to  Horace  Greeley :  "  I  would  save 
the  Union.  If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save 
the  Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  save 
slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they 
could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not 
agree  with  them.  My  paramount  object  in  this 
struggle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  is  not  either  to 
save  or  to  destroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the 
Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it; 
and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I 
would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  do  that. 
What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  coloured  race,  I 
do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union; 
and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall 
do  less  whenever  I  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts 
the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  when  I  shall  be- 
lieve doing  more  will  help  the  cause." 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN    SENSE   OF   PROPORTION       IQQ 

VI 

THE  ARISTOTELIAN   VIRTUES   AND   THEIR 
ACQUISITION 

The  special  forms  that  the  one  great  virtue  of 
seeking  the  relative  mean  takes  in  actual  life  bear 
a  close  correspondence  to  the  cardinal  virtues  of 
Plato;  yet  with  a  difference  which  marks  a  posi- 
tive advance  in  insight.  Aristotle,  to  begin  with, 
distinguishes  wisdom  from  prudence.  Wisdom  is 
the  theoretic  knowledge  of  things  as  they  are, 
irrespective  of  their  serviceableness  to  our  prac- 
tical interests.  In  modern  terms  it  is  devotion  to 
pure  science.  This  corresponds  to  Plato's  con- 
templation of  the  Good.  According  to  Aristotle 
this  devotion  to  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  under- 
lies all  virtue ;  for  only  he  who  knows  how  things 
stand  related  to  each  other  in  the  actual  world, 
will  be  able  to  grasp  aright  that  relation  of  means 
to  ends  on  which  the  success  of  the  practical  life 
depends.  Just  as  the  engineer  cannot  build  a 
bridge  across  the  Mississippi  unless  he  knows 
those  laws  of  pure  mathematics  and  physics 
which  underlie  the  stability  of  all  structures,  so  the 
man  who  is  ignorant  of  economics,  poHtics,  sociol- 
ogy, psychology,  and  ethics  is  sure  to  make  a 
botch   of    any   attempts   he   may   make   to  build 


2C»  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

bridges  across  the  gulf  which  separates  one  man 
from  another  man;  one  group  of  citizens  from 
another  group.  Pure  science  is  at  the  basis  of  all 
art,  consciously  or  unconsciously;  and  therefore 
wisdom  is  the  fundamental  form  of  virtue. 

Prudence  comes  next ;  the  power  to  see,  not  the 
theoretical  relations  of  men  and  things  to  each 
other,  but  the  practical  relationships  of  men  and 
things  to  our  self-chosen  ends.  Wisdom  knows 
the  laws  which  govern  the  strength  of  materials. 
Prudence  knows  how  strong  a  structure  is  neces- 
sary to  support  the  particular  strain  we  wish  to 
place  upon  it.  Wisdom  knows  sociology.  Pru- 
dence tells  us  whether  in  a  given  case  it  is  better 
to  give  a  beggar  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  an  order  on 
a  central  bureau,  a  scolding,  or  a  kick.  The  most 
essential,  and  yet  the  rarest  kind  of  prudence  is 
that  considerateness  which  sensitively  appreciates 
the  point  of  view  of  the  people  with  whom  we 
deal,  and  takes  proper  account  of  those  subtle 
and  complex  sentiments,  prejudices,  traditions,  and 
ways  of  thinking,  which  taken  together  constitute 
^  the  social  situation. 

Temperance,  again,  is  not  the  repression  of 
lower  impulses  in  the  interest  of  those  abstractly 
higher,  as  it  came  to  be  in  the  popular  inter- 
pretations of  Platonism,  and  as  it  was  in  Stoicism. 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF  PROPORTION      201 

With  Aristotle  it  is  the  stern  and  remorseless  ex- 
clusion of  whatever  cannot  be  brought  into  sub- 
jection to  my  chosen  ends,  whatever  they  may  be, 
As  Stevenson  says  in  true  Aristotelian  spirit, 
"  We  are  not  damned  for  doing  wrong :  we  are 
damned  for  not  doing  right."  For  temperance 
lies  not  in  the  external  thing  done  or  left  un- 
done; but  in  that  relation  of  means  to  worthy 
ends  which  either  the  doing  or  the  not  doing  of 
certain  things  may  most  effectively  express.  We 
shall  never  get  any  common  basis  of  understand- 
ing on  what  we  call  the  temperance  question  of 
to-day  until  we  learn  to  recognise  this  internal 
and  moral,  as  distinct  from  the  external  and 
physical,  definition  of  what  true  temperance  is. 
Temperance  isn't  abstinence.  Temperance  isn't 
indulgence.  Neither  is  it  moderation  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  term.  True  temperance 
is  the  using  of  just  so  much  of  a  thing,  —  no 
more,  no  less,  but  just  so  much,  —  as  best  promotes 
the  ends  one  has  at  heart.  To  discover  whether 
a  man  is  temperate  or  not  in  anything,  you  must 
first  know  the  ends  at  which  he  aims  ;  and  then 
the  strictness  with  which  he  uses  the  means  that 
best  further  those  ends,  and  foregoes  the  things 
that  would  hinder  them. 

Temperance  of  this  kind  looks  at  first  sight  like 


202  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

license.  So  it  is  if  one's  aims  be  not  broad  and 
high.  In  the  matter  of  sexual  morality,  Aris- 
totle's doctrine  as  applied  in  his  day  was  noto- 
riously loose.  Whatever  did  not  interfere  with 
one's  duties  as  citizen  and  soldier  was  held  to 
be  permissible.  Yet  as  Green  and  Muirhead,  and 
all  the  commentators  on  Aristotle  have  pointed 
out,  it  is  a  deeper  grasp  of  this  very  principle 
of  Aristotle,  a  widening  of  the  conception  of  the 
true  social  end,  which  is  destined  to  put  chastity 
on  its  eternal  rock  foundation,  and  make  of 
sexual  immorality  the  transparently  weak  and 
wanton,  cruel  and  unpardonable  vice  it  is.  To 
do  this,  to  be  sure,  there  must  be  grafted  on  to  it 
the  Christian  principle  of  democracy,  —  a  regard 
for  the  rights  and  interests  of  persons  as  persons. 
The  beauty  of  the  Aristotelian  principle  is  that 
it  furnishes  so  stout  and  sturdy  a  stock  to  graft 
this  principle  on  to.  When  Christianity  is  unsup- 
ported by  some  such  solid  trunk  of  rationality, 
it  easily  drops  into  a  sentimental  asceticism. 
Take,  for  example,  this  very  matter  of  sexual 
moraUty.  Divorced  from  some  such  great  social 
end  as  Aristotelianism  requires,  the  only  defence 
you  have  against  the  floods  of  sensuality  is  the 
vague,  sentimental,  ascetic  notion  that  in  some 
way  or  other  these  things  are  naughty,  and  good 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      203 

people  ought  not  to  do  them.  How  utterly  in- 
effective such  a  barrier  is,  everybody  who  has 
had  much  dealing  with  young  men  knows  per- 
fectly well.  And  yet  that  is  pretty  much  all  the 
opposition  current  and  conventional  morality  is 
offering  at  the  present  time.  The  Aristotelian 
doctrine,  with  the  Christian  principle  grafted  on, 
puts  two  plain  questions  to  every  man.  Do  you 
include  the  sanctity  of  the  home,  the  peace  and 
purity  of  family  life,  the  dignity  and  welfare  of 
every  man  and  woman,  the  honest  birthright  of 
every  child,  as  part  of  the  social  end  at  which 
you  aim }  If  you  do,  you  are  a  noble  and  honour- 
able man.  If  you  do  not,  then  you  are  a  disgrace 
to  the  mother  who  bore  you,  and  the  home  where 
you  were  reared.  So  much  for  the  question 
of  the  end.  The  second  question  is  concerned 
with  the  means.  Do  you  honestly  believe  that 
loose  and  promiscuous  sexual  relations  conduce 
to  that  sanctity  of  the  home,  that  peace  and 
purity  of  family  life,  that  dignity  and  welfare  of 
every  man  and  woman,  that  honest  birthright  of 
every  child,  which  as  an  honourable  man  you 
must  admit  to  be  the  proper  end  at  which  to 
aim .?  If  you  think  these  means  are  conducive 
to  these  ends,  then  you  are  certainly  an  egre- 
gious fool.     Temperance  in  these  matters,  then, 


204  FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

or  to  use  its  specific  name,  chastity,  is  simply  the 
refusal  to  ignore  the  great  social  end  which 
every  decent  man  must  recognise  as  reasonable 
and  right ;  and  the  resolute  determination  not  to 
admit  into  his  own  life,  or  inflict  on  the  lives  of 
others,  anything  that  is  destructive  of  that  social 
end.  Chastity  is  neither  celibacy  nor  licentious- 
ness. It  is  far  deeper  than  either,  and  far  nobler 
than  them  both.  It  is  devotion  to  the  great  ends 
of  family  integrity,  personal  dignity,  and  social 
stability.  It  is  including  the  welfare  of  society, 
and  of  every  man,  woman,  and  child  involved, 
in  the  comprehensive  end  for  which  we  live; 
and  holding  all  appetites  and  passions  in  strict 
relation  to  that  reasonable  and  righteous  end. 

Aristotelian  courage  is  simply  the  other  side  of 
temperance.  Temperance  remorselessly  cuts  ofif 
whatever  hinders  the  ends  at  which  we  aim. 
Courage,  on  the  other  hand,  resolutely  takes  on 
whatever  dangers  and  losses,  whatever  pains  and 
penalties  are  incidental  to  the  effective  prosecution 
of  these  ends.  To  hold  consistently  an  end,  is  to 
endure  cheerfully  whatever  means  the  service  of 
that  end  demands.  AristoteUan  courage,  rightly 
conceived,  leads  us  to  the  very  threshold  of 
Christian  sacrifice.  He  who  comes  to  Christian 
sacrifice  by  this  approach  of  Aristotelian  courage, 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN  SENSE  OF    PROPORTION      20$ 

will  be  perfectly  clear  about  the  reasonableness  of 
it,  and  will  escape  that  abyss  of  sentimentalism 
into  which  too  largely  our  Christian  doctrine  of 
sacrifice  has  been  allowed  to  drop. 

Courage  does  not  depend  on  whether  you  save 
your  life,  or  risk  your  life,  or  lose  your  life.  A 
brave  man  may  save  his  Ufe  in  situations  where  a 
coward  would  lose  it  and  a  fool  would  risk  it. 
The  brave  man  is  he  who  is  so  clear  and  firm  in 
his  grasp  of  some  worthy  end  that  he  will  live  if 
he  can  best  serve  it  by  living ;  that  he  will  die  if 
he  can  best  serve  it  by  dying;  and  he  will  take 
his  chances  of  life  or  death  if  taking  those 
chances  is  the  best  way  to  serve  this  end. 

The  brave  man  does  not  like  criticism,  unpopu- 
larity, defeat,  hostiUty,  any  better  than  anybody 
else.  He  does  not  pretend  to  Uke  them.  He 
does  not  court  them.  He  does  not  pose  as  a 
martyr  every  chance  that  he  can  get.  He  simply 
takes  these  pains  and  ills  as  under  the  circum- 
stances the  best  means  of  furthering  the  ends  he 
has  at  heart.  For  their  sake  he  swallows  criticism 
and  calls  it  good;  invites  opposition  and  glories 
in  overcoming  it,  or  being  overcome  by  it,  as  the 
fates  may  decree ;  accepts  persecution  and  rejoices 
to  be  counted  worthy  to  suffer  in  so  good  a  cause. 

It  is  all  a  question  here  as  everywhere  in  Aris- 


206  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

totle  of  the  ends  at  which  one  aims,  and  the  sense 
of  proportion  with  which  he  chooses  his  means. 
In  his  own  words :  "  The  man,  then,  who  governs 
his  fear  and  Hkewise  his  confidence  aright,  facing 
dangers  it  is  right  to  face,  and  for  the  right  cause, 
in  the  right  manner,  and  at  the  right  time,  is 
courageous.  For  the  courageous  man  regulates 
both  his  feelings  and  his  actions  with  due  regard  to 
the  circumstances  and  as  reason  and  proportion 
suggest.  The  courageous  man,  therefore,  faces 
danger  and  does  the  courageous  thing  because  it 
is  a  fine  thing  to  do."  As  Muirhead  sums  up 
Aristotle's  teaching  on  this  point :  "  True  courage 
must  be  for  a  noble  object.  Here,  as  in  all  ex- 
cellence, action  and  object,  consequence  and  mo- 
tive, are  inseparable.  Unless  the  action  is  inspired 
by  a  noble  motive,  and  permeated  throughout  its 
whole  structure  by  a  noble  character,  it  has  no 
claim  to  the  name  of  courage." 

The  virtues  cannot  be  learned  out  of  a  book, 
or  picked  up  ready-made.  They  must  be  acquired, 
by  practice,  as  is  the  case  with  the  arts;  and  they  are 
not  really  ours  until  they  have  become  so  habitual 
as  to  be  practically  automatic.  The  sign  and  seal 
of  the  complete  acquisition  of  any  virtue  is  the 
pleasure  we  take  in  it.  Such  pleasure  once  gained 
becomes  one's  lasting  and  inalienable  possession. 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      20/ 

In  Aristotle's  words:  "We  acquire  the  virtues  by 
doing  the  acts,  as  is  the  case  with  the  arts  too. 
We  learn  an  art  by  doing  that  which  we  wish  to 
do  when  we  have  learned  it ;  we  become  builders 
by  building,  and  harpers  by  playing  on  the  harp. 
And  so  by  doing  just  acts  we  become  just,  and  by 
doing  acts  of  temperance  and  courage  we  become 
temperate  and  courageous.  It  is  by  our  conduct 
in  our  intercourse  with  other  men  that  we  become 
just  or  unjust,  and  by  acting  in  circumstances  of 
danger,  and  training  ourselves  to  feel  fear  or  con- 
fidence, that  we  become  courageous  or  cowardly." 
"The  happy  man,  then,  as  we  define  him,  will 
have  the  property  of  permanence,  and  all  through 
life  will  preserve  his  character;  for  he  will  be 
occupied  continually,  or  with  the  least  possible 
interruption,  in  excellent  deeds  and  excellent  spec- 
ulations ;  and  whatever  his  fortune  may  be,  he 
will  take  it  in  the  noblest  fashion,  and  bear  him- 
self always  and  in  all  things  suitably.  And  if 
it  is  what  man  does  that  determines  the  char- 
acter of  his  life,  then  no  happy  man  will  become 
miserable,  for  he  will  never  do  what  is  hateful 
and  base.  For  we  hold  that  the  man  who  is 
truly  good  and  wise  will  bear  with  dignity  what- 
ever fortune  sends,  and  will  always  make  the 
best  of  his  circumstances,  as  a  good  general  will 


208  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

turn   the   forces    at   his    command    to    the   best 
account." 

This  doctrine  that  virtue,  like  skill  in  any  game 
or  craft,  is  gained  by  practice,  deserves  a  word  of 
comment.  It  seems  to  say,  "You  must  do  the 
thing  before  you  know  how,  in  order  to  know  how 
after  you  have  done  it."  Paradox  or  no  paradox, 
that  is  precisely  the  fact.  The  swimmer  learns  to 
swim  by  floundering  and  splashing  around  in  the 
water ;  and  if  he  is  unwilling  to  do  the  floundering 
and  splashing  before  he  can  swim,  he  will  never 
become  a  swimmer.  The  ball-player  must  do  a 
lot  of  muffing  and  wild  throwing  before  he  can 
become  a  sure  catcher  and  a  straight  thrower.  If 
he  is  ashamed  to  go  out  on  the  diamond  and  make 
these  errors,  he  may  as  well  give  up  at  once  all 
idea  of  ever  becoming  a  ball-player.  For  it  is  by 
the  progressive  elimination  of  errors  that  the  per- 
fect player  is  developed.  The  only  place  where 
no  errors  are  made,  whether  in  base-ball  or  in  life, 
is  on  the  grand  stand.  The  courage  to  try  to  do  a 
thing  before  you  know  how,  and  the  patience  to 
keep  on  trying  after  you  have  found  out  that  you 
don't  know  how,  and  the  perseverance  to  renew 
the  trial  as  many  times  as  necessary  until  you  do 
know  how,  are  the  three  conditions  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  physical  skill,  mental  power,  moral  virtue, 
or  personal  excellence. 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      209 

VII 

ARISTOTELIAN    FRIENDSHIP 

We  are  now  prepared  to  see  why  Aristotle 
regards  friendship  as  the  crown  and  consumma- 
tion of  a  virtuous  life.  No  one  has  praised  friend- 
ship more  highly,  or  written  of  it  more  profoundly 
than  he. 

(     Friendship  he  defines  as  "unanimity  on  questions 
j  of  the  public  advantage  and  on  all  that  touches 
^j  life."      This  unanimity,  however,  is  very  different 
^/from  agreement  in  opinion.      It  is  seeing  things 
J   I  from  the  same  point  of  view ;  or,  more  accurately, 
it  is  the  appreciation  of  each  other's  interests  and 
aims.     The  whole  tendency  of  Aristotle  thus  far 
has  been  to  develop  individuality;  to  make  each 
man   different  from  every  other  man.      Conven- 
tional people  are  all  alike.      But  the  people  who 
have  cherished  ends  of  their  own,  and  who  make 
all  their  choices  with  reference  to  these  inwardly 
cherished  ends,  become  highly  differentiated.    The 
more   individual    your    life    becomes,   the    fewer 
people  there  are  who  can  understand  you.     The 
man  who  has  ends  of  his  own  is  bound  to  be  unin- 
telligible to  the  man  who  has  no  such  ends,  and 
is  merely  drifting  with  the  crowd.      Now  friend- 


? 


2IO  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

ship  is  the  bringing  together  of  these  intensely 
individual,  highly  differentiated  persons  on  a  basis 
of  mutual  sympathy  and  common  understanding. 
Friendship  is  the  recognition  and  respect  of  indi- 
viduality in  others  by  persons  who  are  highly 
\^  individualised  themselves.  That  is  why  Aristotle 
says  true  friendship  is  possible  only  between  the 
good ;  between  people,  that  is,  who  are  in  earnest 
about  ends  that  are  large  and  generous  and  pub- 
lic-spirited enough  to  permit  of  being  shared. 
"The  bad,"  he  says,  "desire  the  company  of  others, 
but  avoid  their  own.  And  because  they  avoid 
their  own  company,  there  is  no  real  basis  for  union 
of  aims  and  interests  with  their  fellows."  "  Hav- 
ing nothing  lovable  about  them,  they  have  no 
friendly  feelings  toward  themselves.  If  such  a 
condition  is  consummately  miserable,  the  moral  is 
to  shun  vice,  and  strive  after  virtue  with  all  one's 
might.  For  in  this  way  we  shall  at  once  have 
friendly  feelings  toward  ourselves  and  become  the 
friends  of  others.  A  good  man  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  his  friend  as  to  himself,  seeing  that  his 
friend  is  a  second  self."  "  The  conclusion,  there- 
fore, is  that  if  a  man  is  to  be  happy,  he  will 
require  gpod  friends." 

Friendship  has  as  many  planes  as  human  life 
and  human  association.     The  men  with  whom  we 


THE   ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      211 

play  golf  and  tennis,  billiards  and  whist,  are 
friends  on  the  lowest  plane — that  of  common 
pleasures.  Our  professional  and  business  asso- 
ciates are  friends  upon  a  little  higher  plane — that 
of  the  interests  we  share.  The  men  who  have 
the  same  social  customs  and  intellectual  tastes  ; 
the  men  with  whom  we  read  our  favourite  authors, 
and  talk  over  our  favourite  topics,  are  friends  upon 
j  a  still  higher  plane  —  that  of  identity  of  aesthetic 
I  and  intellectual  pursuits.  The  highest  plane,  the 
best  friends,  are  those  with  whom  we  consciously 
share  the  spiritual  purpose  of  our  lives.  This 
highest  friendship  is  as  precious  as  it  is  rare. 
With  such  friends  we  drop  at  once  into  a  matter- 
;  of-course  intimacy  and  communion.  Nothing  is 
held  back,  nothing  is  concealed;  our  aims  are 
expressed  with  the  assurance  of  sympathy ;  even 
our  shortcomings  are  confessed  with  the  certainty 
that  they  will  be  forgiven.  Such  friendship  lasts 
as  long  as  the  virtue  which  is  its  common  bond. 
Jealousy  cannot  come  in  to  break  it  up.  Absolute 
sincerity,  absolute  loyalty,  —  these  are  the  high 
terms  on  which  such  friendship  must  be  held. 
A  person  may  have  many  such  friends  on  one 
condition :  that  he  shall  not  talk  to  any  one  friend 
about  what  his  friendship  permits  him  to  know 
of  another  friend.      Each  such  relation  must  be 


212  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

complete  within  itself ;  and  hermetically  sealed, 
so  far  as  permitting  any  one  else  to  come  inside 
the  sacred  circle  of  its  mutual  confidence.  In 
such  friendship,  differences,  as  of  age,  sex,  sta- 
tion in  life,  divide  not,  but  rather  enhance,  the 
sweetness  and  tenderness  of  the  relationship.  In 
Aristotle's  words :  "  The  friendship  of  the  good, 
and  of  those  who  have  the  same  virtues,  is  perfect 
friendship.  Such  friendship,  therefore,  endures 
so  long  as  each  retains  his  character,  and  virtue  is 
a  lasting  thing." 

VIII 

CRITICISM   AND   SUMMARY   OF   ARISTOTLE'S 
TEACHING 

If  finally  we  ask  what  are  the  limitations  of 
Aristotle,  we  find  none  save  the  limitations  of 
the  age  and  city  in  which  he  lived.  He  lived 
in  a  city-state  where  thirty  thousand  full  male 
citizens,  with  some  seventy  thousand  women  and 
children  dependent  upon  them,  were  supported 
by  the  labour  of  some  hundred  thousand  slaves. 
The  rights  of  man  as  such,  whether  native  or 
alien,  male  or  female,  free  or  slave,  had  not  yet 
been  affirmed.  That  crowning  proclamation  of 
universal   emancipation  was  reserved    for    Chris- 


THE  ARISTOTELIAN   SENSE   OF   PROPORTION      2l3 

tianity  three  centuries  and  a  half  later.  Without 
this  Christian  element  no  principle  of  personality 
is  complete.  Not  until  the  city-state  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle  is  widened  to  include  the  humblest 
man,  the  lowliest  woman,  the  most  defenceless 
little  child,  does  their  doctrine  become  final  and 
universal.  Yet  with  this  single  limitation  of  its 
range,  the  form  of  Aristotle's  teaching  is  complete 
and  ultimate.  Deeper,  saner,  stronger,  wiser 
statement  of  the  principles  of  personality  the 
world  has  never  heard. 

His  teaching  may  be  summed  up  in  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

TEN   ARISTOTELIAN    COMMANDMENTS 

Thou  shalt  devote  thy  utmost  powers  to  some 
section  of  our  common  social  welfare. 

Thou  shalt  hold  this  end  above  all  lesser  goods, 
such  as  pleasure,  money,  honour. 

Thou  shalt  hold  the  instruments  essential  to  the 
service  of  this  end  second  only  to  the  end  itself. 

Thou  shalt  ponder  and  revere  the  universal 
laws  that  bind  ends  and  means  together  in  the 
ordered  universe. 

Thou  shalt  master  and  obey  the  specific  laws 
that  govern  the  relation  of  means  to  thy  chosen 
end. 


214  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

Thou  shalt  use  just  so  much  of  the  materials 
and  tools  of  life  as  the  service  of  thy  end  requires. 

Thou  shalt  exclude  from  thy  life  all  that  ex- 
ceeds or  falls  below  this  mean,  reckless  of  pleas- 
ure lost. 

Thou  shalt  endure  whatever  hardship  and  pri- 
vation the  maintenance  of  this  mean  in  the  service 
of  thy  end  requires,  heedless  of  pain  involved. 

Thou  shalt  remain  steadfast  in  this  service  until 
habit  shall  have  made  it  a  second  nature,  and 
custom  shall  have  transformed  it  into  joy. 

Thou  shalt  find  and  hold  a  few  like-minded 
friends,  to  share  with  thee  this  hf elong  devotion  to 
that  common  social  welfare  which  is  the  task  and 
goal  of  man. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CHRISTIAN  SPIRIT  OF  LOVE 

I 

THE  DEFINITION   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT 

Christianity  is  not  a  philosophy  but  a  religion ; 
not  a  doctrine  but  a  life ;  not  the  performance  of 
a  task  but  the  maintenance  of  certain  personal 
relationships ;  in  a  word,  it  is  the  Spirit  of  love. 

First  it  is  grateful  reverence  toward  the  Father 
whose  nature  is  manifested  in  the  goodness  of  the 
universe,  and  its  perpetual  struggle  toward  per- 
fection. That  this  goodness  at  the  heart  of  the 
universe  is  so  akin  to  us  that  we  can  regard  it  as 
personal,  and  treat  its  struggle  toward  perfection 
as  the  expression  of  the  Father's  will,  is  the  deep 
spiritual  insight  on  which  Christianity  is  founded. 
The  main  proofs  of  this  insight  are  two :  the  fact 
that  the  seers  from  Jesus  down  have  seen  it ;  and 
that  on  it  as  a  basis  a  satisfactory  life  can  be  de- 
veloped. This  fundamental  insight  has  been  vari- 
ously expressed ;  sometimes  in  personal,  sometimes 
in  impersonal  terms ;  but  always  with  the  impli- 
cation, latent  or  avowed,  that  this  Universal  Good- 

215 


2l6  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

ness,  working  through  the  cosmic  process  and 
coming  to  self-expression  in  the  customs,  institu- 
tions, and  standards  of  human  society,  is  capable 
of  being  reproduced  within  us  as  the  Spirit  of  our 
own  regenerated  lives.  Perhaps  this  basal  insight 
has  never  been  better  expressed  than  by  the  least 
orthodox  and  conventional  of  modern  seers,  Walt 
Whitman. 

"  In  this  broad  earth  of  ours, 
Amid  the  measureless  grossness  and  the  slag, 
Enclosed  and  safe  within  its  central  heart 
Nestles  the  seed  perfection. 

"  Out  of  the  bulk,  the  morbid  and  the  shallow, 
Out  of  the  bad  majority,  the  varied  countless  frauds  of  men 

and  states. 
Electric,  antiseptic  yet,  cleaving,  suffusing  all, 
Only  the  good  is  universal. 

y**  Is  it  a  dream  ? 
^^  /  Nay  but  the  lack  of  it  a  dream, 
^      And  failing  it  life's  wealth  and  lore  a  dream, 
\iy    And  all  the  world  a  dream." 

To  take  the  duties  and  trials,  the  practical  prob- 
lems and  personal  relationships  of  life  up  into  this 
atmosphere  of  Universal  Goodness,  so  that  what 
we  do  and  how  we  treat  people  becomes  the  re- 
sultant, not  of  the  outward  situation  and  our  natural 
appetites  and  passions,  but  of  the  outward  situation 
and  this  Universal   Goodness  reproduced  within 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  21^ 

our  reverent  and  obedient  wills,  —  this  is  what  it 
means  to  live  in  the  Christian  Spirit  ^this  is  the 
essence  of  Christianity^'  Strengthened  character 
and  straightened  conduct  are  sure  to  follow  the 
maintenance  of  this  spiritual  relationship.  Not 
that  it  will  transform  one's  hereditary  traits  and 
acquired  habits  all  at  once,  or  save  one  from  many 
a  slip  and  flaw.  Even  the  Christian  Spirit  of  love 
takes  time  to  work  its  moral  transformation.  The 
tendency  of  it,  however,  is  steady  and  strong  in  the 
right  direction  ;  and  in  due  time  it  will  conquer  the 
heart  and  control  the  action  of  any  man  who, 
whether  verbally  or  silently,  whether  formally  or 
informally,  maintains  this  conscious  relationship  to 
that  Universal  Goodness  at  the  heart  of  things 
which  most  of  us  call  God.  Christ,  and  all  who 
have  shared  his  spiritual  insight,  tell  us  that  the 
maintenance  of  this  relationship,  close,  warm,  and 
quick,  is  the  pearl  of  great  price,  the  one  thing 
needful,  the  potency  of  righteousness,  the  secret  of 
blessedness ;  and  that  there  is  more  hope  of  a  man 
with  a  bad  record  and  many  besetting  sins  who 
honestly  tries  to  keep  this  relationship  alive  within 
his  breast,  than  there  is  of  the  self-righteous  man 
who  boasts  that  he  can  keep  himself  outwardly 
immaculate  without  these  inward  aids. 

Christianity  of   this   simple,   vital  sort,  is  the 


2l8  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

world's  crowning  principle  of  personality.  Criti- 
cised by  enemies  and  caricatured  by  friends ;  fos- 
silised in  the  minds  of  the  aged,  and  artificially 
forced  on  the  tongues  of  the  immature;  mingled 
with  all  manner  of  exploded  superstition,  false 
philosophy,  science  that  is  not  so,  and  history  that 
never  happened;  obscured  under  absurd  rites; 
buried  in  incredible  creeds ;  professed  by  hypo- 
crites ;  discredited  by  sentimentalists ;  evaporated 
by  mystics ;  stereotyped  by  literalists ;  monopo- 
lised by  sacerdotalists ;  it  has  lived  in  spite  of  all 
the  grave-clothes  its  unbelieving  disciples  have 
tried  to  wrap  around  it,  and  will  hold  forever  the 
keys  of  eternal  life. 

II 

THE   CHRISTIAN   EXPANSION   OF  THE  TEN 
COMMANDMENTS 

The  Christian  Spirit  came  historically  as  an  ex- 
pansion of  the  Jewish  law;  a  rewriting  of  that 
law  on  the  tables  of  the  heart ;  an  interpretation 
of  it  in  terms  of  personal  attitude  toward  God  and 
one's  fellow-men,  instead  of  in  terras  of  specific 
acts  to  be  done  or  left  undone.  Perhaps  there  is 
no  better  way  to  get  at  the  heart  of  Christianity 
than  from  this  historical  approach,  —  trying  to  see 


THE    CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT    OF    LOVE  219 

what  becomes  of  the  old  commandments  when 
taken  up  and  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the 
Christian  Spirit. 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  as  if  we  had  out- 
grown those  commandments  altogether.  We  are 
not  polytheists;  we  are  not  idolaters;  we  don't 
swear,  unless  under  great  provocation ;  we  don't 
play  polo  or  go  hunting  on  Sunday,  as  a  rule ;  we 
are  not  saucy  to  our  parents ;  we  have  not  com- 
mitted murder,  or  adultery ;  we  don't  steal,  unless 
it  be  in  intricate  matters  of  bookkeeping;  we 
don't  bear  false  witness,  unless  it  be  to  help  other 
people  or  ourselves  out  of  a  tight  place,  or  by  way 
of  indulging  in  unverified  gossip  and  scandal ;  we 
are  not  covetous,  except  of  the  few  things  that  we 
very  much  want.  Why  should  we  not  hold  our 
heads  very  high  like  the  young  man  in  the  Gos- 
pels, and  say,  "  All  these  things  have  I  observed : 
what  lack  I  yet  ? " 

The  Christian  Spirit  does  not  judge  us  by  the 
formal  test  of  whether  we  have  kept  or  broken 
this  or  that  specific  commandment,  but  by  the 
deeper  and  more  searching  requirement  that  our 
lives  shall  detract  nothing  from  and  add  some- 
thing to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of 
mankind. 

Is  God's  world  a  happier,  holier,  better  world 


220  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

because  we  are  here  in  it,  helping  on  God's  good- 
will for  men  ?  If  that  be  the  grand,  comprehensive 
purpose  of  our  lives,  honestly  cherished,  frankly- 
avowed,  systematically  cultivated,  then,  no  matter 
how  far  below  perfection  we  may  fall,  that  single 
purpose,  in  spite  of  failure,  defeat,  and  repeated 
sin,  pulls  us  through.  If  we  have  this  Christian 
Spirit  in  our  hearts,  and  if  with  Christ's  help  we 
are  trying  to  do  something  to  make  that  purpose 
real  in  our  lives  and  effective  in  the  world,  our 
eternal  salvation  is  assured.  On  the  other  hand, 
is  there  a  single  point  on  which  we  deliberately 
are  working  evil  ?  Is  the  lot  of  any  poor  man 
harder,  or  the  life  of  any  unhappy  woman  more 
sad  and  bitter,  for  aught  that  we  have  done  or 
left  undone.'  Is  any  good  institution  the  weaker, 
or  any  bad  custom  more  prevalent,  for  aught  that 
we  are  deliberately  and  persistently  withholding 
of  help  or  contributing  of  harm  ?  If  so,  if  in  any 
one  point  we  are  consciously  and  unrepentingly 
arrayed  against  God's  righteous  purpose,  and  the 
human  welfare  which  is  dear  to  God;  if  there  is 
a  single  point  on  which  we  are  deliberately  setting 
aside  His  righteous  will,  and  doing  intentional  evil 
to  the  humblest  of  His  children ;  then,  notwithstand- 
ing our  high  rank  on  other  matters,  our  lack  of  the 
right  purpose,  at  even  a  single  point,  makes  us 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  221 

guilty  of  the  whole ;  we  are  unfit  for  admission 
into  His  kingdom. 

Jesus'  one  test  of  Christian  character  is  the 
single,  comprehensive  purpose  to  make  the  world 
holier,  happier,  and  better  by  our  presence  in  it 
We  may,  however,  apply  this  test  in  detail  to  the 
points  covered  by  the  ten  commandments. 

Judged  by  Jesus'  standard,  the  commandment 
"Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me" 
means  that  we  shall  have  no  other  purposes  which 
take  precedence  of  this  primary  purpose  to  make 
this  world  in  which  we  live  as  good  a  world  as 
God  wills  that  it  shall  be,  and  to  treat  the  people 
whom  He  has  placed  in  it  as  kindly  and  generously 
as  He  would  have  us  treat  them.  Now  can  we 
say  that  getting  office,  or  making  money,  or 
winning  popularity,  or  gaining  a  reputation  never 
comes  in  ahead  of  the  purpose  to  make  God's 
world  what  God  would  have  it,  and  the  people 
in  it  as  happy  and  blessed  as  He  would  have 
them  be  ?  Not  that  these  things  are  bad  in  them- 
selves. On  the  contrary,  they  are  all  good ;  and 
the  more  of  them  we  win  and  hold  the  better. 
The  one  thing  we  may  not  do  is  to  put  them 
ahead  of  the  great  purpose  which  they  all  ought  to 
serve.  Money  is  good;  the  symbol  of  all  mate- 
rial goods.     But  to  make  money  or  anything  else 


222  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

the  ultimate  end,  for  the  sake  of  which  we  are 
willing  to  make  the  world  more  corrupt,  and 
people  more  wretched,  —  that  is  to  break  the 
first  commandment.  ^  That  is  the  only  polytheism 
that  greatly  tempts  men  to-day.; 

Then  the  second  commandment,  as  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  Christian  Spirit,  is  very  closely 
related  to  the  first.  It  is  still  a  question  of  the 
attitude  toward  these  special  goods  which  make 
up  the  contents  of  our  lives.  The  first  command- 
ment told  us  not  to  put  them  before  God.  The 
second  tells  us  not  to  demean  ourselves  on  account 
of  them,  not  to  bow  down  to  them  and  serve  them. 
Money  and  fame,  influence  and  power,  I  repeat, 
are  all  good ;  they  are  the  stuff  the  highest  good 
is  made  of.  But  they  are  not  worthy  of  our 
supreme  devotion  ;  they  are  not  ends  in  them- 
selves, but  only  subordinate  elements  in  the  one 
great  end  of  making  the  world,  our  fellows  and 
ourselves,  what  the  good  God  would  have  all  be. 
Indispensable  as  instruments,  these  external  things 
are  degrading  when  set  up  as  ends  in  themselves. 
That  is  the  idolatry  that  tempts  the  modern  man. 

Third:  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain.  From  Jesus'  point  of 
view  this  isn't  the  mere  question  of  profane 
swearing.     That  is  a  low-lived  habit  from  which 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  223 

common  decency  and  respectability  tend  to  eman- 
cipate the  man  who  makes  any  pretence  to  culture 
and  refinement.  Jesus  asks  the  deeper  question, 
Is  the  word  "  God "  a  mere  tradition,  an  empty 
name,  a  sound  signifying  nothing  which  it  is 
worth  our  while  to  concern  ourselves  about? 
Or  do  we  recognise  at  all  times,  and  in  all  cir- 
cumstances, as  having  the  prior  claim  on  all  our 
choices,  and  furnishing  the  test  of  all  our  words 
and  deeds,  this  living,  loving  will  of  God,  that 
is  making  for  human  happiness  and  welfare  in 
this  world,  and  calls  us  to  its  high  and  holy  ser- 
vice ?  If  the  name  of  God  means  that  to  us,  if 
it  is  hallowed  by  some  such  noble  and  practical 
significance,  then  we  are  taking  it  upon  our  lips 
and  into  our  lives  to  some  purpose.  Otherwise 
all  our  talk  about  religion  is  but  sounding  brass, 
and  our  participation  in  its  services  and  rites  is  a 
taking  of  His  holy  name  in  vain. 

Fourth :  Keeping  the  Sabbath  holy.  That 
isn't  merely  staying  in  the  house,  or  going  to 
church,  or  refraining  from  work  and  play.  We 
may  do  all  that,  and  still  make  of  it  a  very  unholy, 
because  a  very  idle  and  unserviceable  day.  Or, 
on  the  other  hand,  realising  how  in  the  rush  and 
bustle  of  the  week-days  these  lower  aims  get  the 
ascendency,  and   the  divine   purpose  that  should 


224  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

control  them  is  forgotten,  do  we  welcome  the 
Sabbath  as  the  great  opportunity  of  the  week  to 
refresh  our  conviction  of  the  divine  purpose  and 
presence  in  the  world;  to  crowd  down  into  its 
proper  subordination  whatever  has  risen  up  to 
dispute  its  rightful  supremacy ;  to  renew  our 
consecration  to  this  higher  service  and  this  larger 
life  ?  Do  we  order  our  going  out  and  our  coming 
in,  our  hours  of  quiet  and  of  company,  our  peri- 
ods of  rest  and  of  activity,  with  an  eye  single  to 
the  reenforcement  of  this  spiritual  purpose  in  our 
own  lives  and  in  the  lives  of  others  ?  That  is 
keeping  the  Sabbath  holy,  according  to  the 
Christian  standard;  and  all  other  employment 
of  the  day  is  wasteful  and  profane. 

Fifth :  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother.  To 
every  child  bom  into  the  world,  father  and  mother 
are  the  first  and  best  representatives  of  the  pur- 
pose which  is  in  the  heart  of  God.  For  the  father 
and  mother  have  lived  long  enough  to  learn  the 
great  lessons  stored  up  in  the  experience  of  the 
race.  They  have  made  many  mistakes  and  under- 
gone many  hardships;  and  they  desire  to  shield 
their  child  from  the  errors  they  have  experienced 
in  themselves  and  witnessed  in  others.  They 
have  tasted  or  observed  the  hollowness  of  much 
which   the   child   is    naturally    tempted    to    seek 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  22$ 

as  the  highest  good.  They  have  come  to  prize 
character  as  the  one  precious  thing  in  life.  Hence 
to  heed  their  counsels,  to  conform  to  their  wishes 
and  desires,  is  only  a  more  human  way  of  stating 
what  the  previous  commandments  have  stated, 
that  the  individual  must  ally  himself  with  the 
spiritual  purpose  that  is  in  the  world,  and  conform 
his  private  wishes  to  the  requirements  which  this 
larger  purpose  makes  upon  him.  To  honour  father 
and  mother  is  to  let  our  lives  be  guided  by  the 
love  of  those  who  know  us  best  and  love  us  most. 
(  It  is  the  human  formula  for  the  divine  service.| 
And  the  richest  blessings  of  life  can  come  to  him 
alone  who  willingly  and  reverently  yields  himself 
to  such  guidance.  To  dishonour  father  and  mother, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  to  have  ways  of  our  own  into 
which  their  confidence  is  not  invited,  to  try  experi- 
ments which  their  experience  does  not  approve, 
and  in  general  to  conduct  ourselves  regardless  of 
the  purposes  they  cherish  for  us,  the  sacrifices 
they  have  made  on  our  behalf,  and  the  love  they 
bear  for  us.  How  could  any  child  expect  perma- 
nent prosperity  who  ventures  to  throw  away  this 
best  gift  of  a  father's  counsel  and  a  mother's 
prayers ! 

Sixth :  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder.      According 
to  the   New  Testament  standard,  he  that  hateth 

Q 


226  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

his  brother  is  a  murderer.  The  look,  or  word,  or 
deed  of  unkindness,  the  thought,  or  wish,  or  hope 
that  evil  may  befall  another,  even  the  attitude 
of  cold  indifference,  is  murder  in  the  heart.  And 
it  is  only  because  we  lack  the  courage  to  translate 
wish  into  will,  that  in  such  cases  we  do  not  do 
the  thing,  which,  if  done  without  our  responsi- 
bility, by  accident  or  nature,  we  should  rejoice  to 
see  accomplished. 

From  a  strange  and  unexpected  source  there  has 
come  the  confirmation  of  this  New  Testament  con- 
ception of  the  prevalence,  not  to  say  the  universal- 
ity, of  murder.  A  brilliant  but  grossly  perverse 
English  man  of  letters  was  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment a  few  years  ago  for  the  foulest  crime.  From 
the  gaol  in  which  he  was  confined  there  came  a 
most  realistic  description  of  the  last  days  and  final 
execution  within  its  walls,  of  a  lieutenant  in  the 
British  army,  who  was  condemned  for  killing  a 
woman  whom  he  loved. 

The  poem  has  the  exaggeration  of  a  perverted 
and  embittered  nature ;  but  beneath  the  exaggera- 
tion there  is  the  original  truth,  which  underlies  St. 
John's  identification  of  murder  and  hate.  After 
describing  the  last  days  of  the  condemned  man, 
his  execution  and  his  burial,  the  poem  concludes 
as  follows:  — 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  22/ 

"In  Reading  Gaol  by  Reading  town 
There  is  a  pit  of  shame, 
And  in  it  lies  a  wretched  man 
Eaten  by  teeth  of  flame, 
In  a  burning  winding  sheet  he  lies 
And  his  grave  has  got  no  name. 

"And  there,  till  Christ  call  forth  the  dead, 
In  silence  let  him  lie : 
No  need  to  waste  the  foolish  tear, 
Or  heave  the  windy  sigh : 
The  man  had  killed  the  thing  he  loved. 
And  so  he  had  to  die. 

"And  all  men  kill  the  thing  they  love. 
By  all  let  this  be  heard. 
Some  do  it  with  a  bitter  look, 
Some  with  a  flattering  word : 
The  coward  does  it  with  a  kiss, 
The  brave  man  with  a  sword." 

Charge  up  against  yourselves  as  murder  the 
bitter  looks,  the  hateful  words,  the  unkind  thoughts, 
the  selfish  actions,  which  have  lessened  the  vitality, 
diminished  the  joy,  wounded  the  heart,  and  mur- 
dered the  happiness  of  those  whom  we  ought  to 
love,  whom  perhaps  at  times  we  think  we  do  love, 
and  who  can  profess  to  be  perfect  on  this  point,  or 
guiltless  of  violating  this  sixth  commandment  ? 

Seventh  :  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery.  We 
all  know  how  Jesus  lifted  this  commandment  up 
out  of  the  mere  prohibition  of  a  particular  crime, 


228  FROM    EPICURUS    TO    CHRIST 

which  ordinary  decency  is  rapidly  banishing  from 
all  save  the  two  extremes  of  society,  the  idle  and 
luxurious  rich,  and  the  squalid  and  disreputable 
poor,  and  established  chastity  on  the  broad,  ra- 
tional basis  of  respect  for  the  dignity  of  woman 
and  the  sanctity  of  sex.  The  logic  of  the  Christian 
Spirit,  as  set  forth  in  Christ's  teaching  on  this 
point,  is  to  place  chastity  on  the  eternal  rock 
foundation  of  treating  another  only  as  love  and 
a  true  regard  for  the  other's  permanent  welfare 
will  warrant.  In  other  words,  Christianity  per- 
mits no  man  to  even  wish  to  treat  any  woman  as 
he  would  be  unwilling  another  man  should  treat 
his  own  mother,  sister,  wife,  or  daughter.  For, 
from  the  Christian  standpoint,  all  women  are 
sisters  of  Christ,  daughters  of  the  most  high  God. 
This  standard  is  searching  and  severe,  no  doubt ; 
C  but  it  is  reasonable  and  right.  \  There  is  not  a 
particle  of  asceticism  about  it.  And  the  man  who 
violates  it  is  not  merely  departing  a  little  from  the 
beaten  path  of  approved  conventionalities.  He  is 
doing  a  cruel,  wanton  wrong.  He  is  doing  to  an- 
other what  he  would  bitterly  resent  if  done  to  one 
whom  he  held  dear.  And  what  right  has  any  man 
to  hold  any  human  being  cheap,  a  mere  means  of 
his  selfish  gratification,  and  not  an  object  of  his 
protection,  and  reverence,  and  chivalrous  regard  ? 


THE    CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF    LOVE  229 

The  worst  mark  of  uneliminated  brutality  and  bar- 
barism which  the  civilised  world  is  carrying  over 
into  the  twentieth  century,  to  curse  and  blacken 
and  pollute  and  embitter  human  life  for  a  few 
generations  more,  is  this  indifference  to  the  Chris- 
tian Spirit  of  love,  as  it  applies  at  this  crucial  point. 

Eighth  :  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  This  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  love  applied  to  property  relations.  In  the 
exchange  of  services,  or  goods,  whether  as  buyer 
or  seller,  employer  or  employee,  we  may  take  no 
more  and  give  no  less  than  we  would  be  willing 
to  give  or  receive  if  we  were  the  other  party. 
What  fidelity  in  the  workman,  what  consideration 
in  the  employer,  what  fairness  in  the  merchant,  this 
mutual  regard  for  each  other's  interests  implies  ! 

Ninth :  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness 
against  thy  neighbour.  This  is  not  merely  a  ques- 
tion of  testimony  in  a  court  of  law.  Is  the  tone 
and  temper  of  our  gossip  and  comment  one  upon 
another  so  kindly  and  considerate,  so  eager  to 
put  the  best  construction  upon  everything  doubt- 
ful ;  to  emphasise  whatever  is  good,  and  to  cover 
up  whatever  is  bad,  that  we  would  be  neither 
ashamed  nor  afraid  to  have  the  substance  and  tone 
of  what  we  say  repeated  to  the  person  about 
whom  it  is  said  ?  That  is  a  fair  test  of  whether 
or  not,  in  this  matter  of  conversation,  in  the  use  of 


230  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

that  little  member  about  which  St.  James  gives  us  so 
much  good  advice,  we  are  animated  by  that  Spirit  of 
love  which  Jesus  tells  us  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. 

Tenth  :  Thou  shalt  not  covet.  When  we  have 
a  quiet  hour  to  ourselves,  when  we  let  our  fancy 
roam  freely  over  the  things  we  wish  we  had, 
whither  do  they  turn.''  Is  it  righteousness  for 
which  we  are  hungry  ?  more  kindliness  for  which 
we  are  athirst  ?  Do  we  wish  we  had  more  of  the 
Christlike  character.?  Do  we  long  to  be  more 
useful,  and  make  other  people  happier  than  we 
have  in  the  past.?  If  these  best  gifts,  and  the 
greatest  of  them  all,  which  is  love,  are  what  we 
covet  in  these  hours  of  fancy  and  day-dream,  then 
at  this  point  there  is  little  that  we  lack.  Or  is  it 
some  fine  position  which  we  wish  to  get,  not  for 
the  good  that  we  can  do  in  it,  but  for  the  mere 
name  and  fame  of  having  it  ?  Is  it  a  finer  house, 
a  bigger  establishment,  a  more  enviable  social  sta- 
tus, a  bigger  bank  account,  and  all  these  things 
not  for  the  sake  of  those  whom  we  can  help  and 
bless  thereby,  but  to  puff  up  and  swell  out  our 
own  little,  selfish  hearts  ? 

But  perhaps  the  reader  will  ask,  is  not  this  the 
same  thing  which  we  called  idolatry  at  the  outset  ? 
Have  not  we  come  around  to  the  very  point  from 
which  we  started  ?     Yes ;  we  have.     But  there  is 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  2$  I 

good  Scripture  warrant  for  it.  As  we  are  told  in 
Colossians,  third  chapter,  fifth  verse,  covetousness 
is  idolatry.  All  sin  is  at  bottom  selfishness,  as  all 
righteousness  is  in  its  essence  love.!  All  the 
virtues  are  but  different  aspects  of  that  love  which 
seeks  the  good  of  all  who  are  affected  by  our 
action.  All  the  vices  are  so  many  separate 
phases  of  the  common  trait  of  meanness  which 
seeks  to  get  something  for  self  at  another's  ex- 
pense or  loss.  So  that  really  we  have  not  been 
examined  two  or  three  times  on  this  same  point, 
under  the  names  of  idolatry,  polytheism,  and 
covetousness;  we  have  been  examined  ten  times 
on  the  same  question,  whether  we  love  God  and 
our  fellow-men,  or  simply  love  our  little  miserable 
selves. 

Judged  by  this  standard,  we  all  stand  guilty  and 
condemned.  Jesus  is  as  much  more  searching 
and  severe  than  Moses  as  the  heavens  are  high 
above  the  earth,  as  love  is  deeper  than  law.  The 
first  effect  of  bringing  a  man's  life  into  contact 
with  Christ  is  a  burden  of  sin,  a  weight  of 
condemnation,  never  suspected  or  dreamed  of 
before.  Inasmuch  as  the  Christian  Spirit  re- 
quires more  of  us  than  any  principle  or  law,  Greek 
or  Hebrew,  that  was  ever  promulgated,  to  that 
extent  is  the  condemnation  it  visits  on  us  more 


232  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

sweeping  and  merciless  than  that  of  any  lawgiver 
or  prophet.  For  the  Christian  Spirit  judges  us  by- 
applying  the  test  of  love,  in  all  its  subtle  and  com- 
prehensive manifestations,  to  the  undisguised  and 
naked  heart  of  man.  In  the  searching  light  of 
this  Spirit,  the  man  who  is  cheating  men  and 
wronging  women,  and  breaking  down  the  benefi- 
cent institutions  of  society,  is  shown  precisely 
how  mean  and  contemptible  a  creature  he  is ;  how 
utterly  unfit  to  enjoy  either  the  respect  of  himself 
or  the  approval  of  others  in  any  sphere  of  existence 
in  which  he  has  to  take  the  social  consequences  of 
his  own  character. 

What,  then,  shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  Can  we 
meet  this  searching  test.?  Yes.  Christ  reveals 
one  saving  way.  If  we  acknowledge  that  the 
Christian  standard  is  the  true  one,  and  that  judged 
by  it  we  are  lacking  at  almost  every  point ;  if  we 
repent  of  the  many  ways  in  which  we  fall  short  of 
it,  and  confess  the  justice  of  the  condemnation  it 
visits  on  us ;  if  we  humbly  ask  to  be  forgiven,  and 
consecrate  ourselves  to  the  service  of  love  His 
standard  sets  before  us;  then  He  will  forgive  us, 
and  welcome  us,  imperfect  as  we  are,  to  His  blessed 
fellowship  and  holy  service.  That  the  worst  of  us 
can  do ;  and  the  best  of  us  can  do  no  more.  We 
are  all  mere  learners  in  His  school ;  to  the  last  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  233 

objects  of  His  forgiveness  and  His  grace.  If  we 
take  this  position  of  humility  and  penitence,  if  we 
confess  Him  as  our  Master  and  Saviour,  our 
Teacher  and  our  Lord,  then  in  His  sight,  in  the  sight 
of  God,  and  even  in  our  own  forgiven  consciences, 
we  become  one  with  Him  whom  we  follow  and 
adore,  and  grow  day  by  day  into  His  likeness. 
"  If  our  hearts  condemn  us  not,  then  have  we 
confidence  toward  God."  For,  after  all,  in  the 
deepest  sense,  a  man's  character  is  not  what  in 
spite  of  his  present  purpose  his  past  deeds  have 
been,  but  what  in  spite  of  the  past  bad  record, 
and  the  present  weakness  of  the  flesh,  his  present 
heart  and  will  are  intent  on  being,  and  determined 
with  God's  help  to  become. 

Thus  the  Christian  Spirit  transcends  the  Jewish 
law  in  these  two  ways :  it  sets  the  standard  infi- 
nitely higher,  and  writes  it  on  our  hearts;  and 
then  it  draws  us  toward  it  by  the  cords  of  love  for 
One  who  is  its  perfect  embodiment,  and  yet  with 
infinite  forgiveness  welcomes  us  back  as  often  as  we 
are  sincerely  sorry  for  having  fallen  below  His 
perfect  standard,  and  wandered  from  His  blessed 
fold.  Christ  translated  law  into  love ;  and  thereby 
won  the  spiritual  leadership  of  the  world.  His 
Spirit  is  the  consummation  of  man's  long  struggle 
for  the  true  principle  of  personality. 


234  FROM   EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

III 

PRACTICAL  APPLICATIONS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  SPIRIT 

Christianity,  however,  is  not  an  affair  of  mere 
atmosphere  or  attitude ;  though,  unlike  the  systems 
previously  considered,  it  does  take  its  rise  outside 
us  and  above  us,  and  is  inexplicable  without  this 
background  of  the  Infinite  to  rest  upon.  The  tests 
of  Christianity  are  the  same  as  the  tests  of  any 
other  principle :  first,  what  can  it  accomplish  in 
the  world  ?  second,  what  does  it  make  of  the  person 
who  lives  and  works  according  to  its  Spirit  ? 

Let  us  apply  the  first  test  to  some  of  the 
practical  problems  which  the  other  systems  have 
attempted  to  solve.  First,  the  problem  of  pleas- 
ure. Since  man's  real  life  is  that  which  he  shares 
with  God,  and  with  his  fellow-men,  all  pleasure 
which  pleases  God  and  furthers  His  good-will; 
all  pleasure  which  is  not  bought  with  dispropor- 
tionate pain  inflicted  on  some  of  our  brothers 
or  sisters,  is  good.  All  pleasure  which  God  cannot 
approve  and  our  fellows  cannot  directly  or  in- 
directly share,  is  bad.  All  pleasure  that  comes  of 
healthy  exercise  of  body,  of  rational  exercise  of 
mind,  of  sympathetic  expansion  of  the  affections, 
of  strenuous  effort  of  the  will,  in  just  and  generous 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT  OF   LOVE  235 

living,  is  at  the  same  time  a  glorifying  of  God  and 
an  enrichment  of  ourselves.  All  pleasure  which 
sacrifices  the  vigour  of  the  body  to  the  indulgence 
of  some  separate  appetite,  all  pleasure  which 
enslaves  or  degrades  or  embitters  the  persons  from 
whom  it  is  procured,  all  pleasure  which  breaks 
down  the  sacred  institutions  on  which  society  is 
founded,  is  shameful  and  debasing,  a  sin  against 
God,  and  a  wrong  to  our  own  souls.  The 
Christian  will  forego  many  pleasures  which  Epi- 
curus and  even  Aristotle  would  permit,  because 
he  is  infinitely  more  sensitive  than  they  to  the 
effect  his  pleasures  have  on  poor  men  and  unpro- 
tected women  whose  welfare  these  earlier  teachers 
did  not  take  into  account.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Christian  will  enter  heartily  into  the  joys  of  pure 
domestic  life,  and  the  delights  of  struggle  with 
untoward  social  and  political  conditions,  from  which 
Plato  and  the  Stoics  thought  it  honourable  to  with- 
draw. Where  God  can  be  glorified  and  men  can 
be  served,  —  there  the  Christian  will  either  find 
his  pleasure,  or  with  optimistic  art  create  a  pleasure 
that  he  does  not  find. 

Wealth  is  not  so  essential  to  the  Christian  as  it 
was  to  Epicurus  and  Aristotle;  for  God  can  be 
glorified  and  man  can  be  served  with  very  little 
furniture  of  fortune;  and  therefore  the  Christian  is 


236  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

able,  in  whatsoever  material  state  he  is,  therewith 
to  be  content.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Christian 
cares  more  for  money  than  either  the  Stoic  or 
Plato ;  for  there  are  ranges  in  God's  universe 
of  beauty,  truth,  and  goodness  which  cannot  be 
aesthetically  appreciated  and  artistically  and  scien- 
tifically appropriated  without  large  expenditure  of 
labour  and  the  wealth  by  which  labour  is  supported; 
and  there  are  wide  spheres  of  business  enterprise 
and  social  service  essential  to  human  welfare 
which  only  the  rich  man  or  nation  can  effectively 
promote.  Divine  and  human  service  is  possible  in 
poverty ;  it  is  more  effective  and  at  the  same  time 
more  difficult  in  wealth.  The  Christian  rich  and 
the  Christian  poor  serve  the  same  Lord,  and  have 
the  same  Spirit;  but  the  accomplishment  of  the 
Christian  rich  man  can  be  so  much  greater  than 
that  of  the  Christian  widow  with  her  mite,  that  the 
Christian  who  is  strong  enough  to  stand  it  is  in 
duty  bound  to  treat  money  as  a  talent  which  in  all 
just  ways  he  ought  to  multiply.  On  the  contrary, 
the  moment  it  begins  to  make  him  less  sympa- 
thetic, less  generous,  less  thankful,  less  respon- 
sible, he  must  give  it  away  as  the  only  alternative 
to  the  loss  of  his  own  soul,  the  deterioration  of  his 
personality. 

Marriage  to  the  Christian  is  an  infinitely  higher 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  237 

and  holier  estate  than  it  could  have  been  to  any 
of  the  earlier  schools.  It  is  an  opportunity 
to  share  with  another  person  the  most  sacred 
prerogative  of  Almighty  God,  —  the  power  of 
body  and  soul  creation.  It  brings  opportunity 
for  love  enhanced  by  the  highest  of  complemen- 
tary differences,  under  circumstances  of  tenderest 
intimacy,  with  the  guaranty  of  lifelong  con- 
stancy. It  magnifies  all  joys  by  their  reflection 
from  the  loved  one's  eyes,  and  minimises  all 
sorrows  through  the  sympathy  of  each  other's 
tears.  No  two  Christians,  who  have  caught  and 
kept  alive  the  Christian  Spirit  in  the  married 
state,  ever  were  or  ever  will  be,  ever  wished  to 
be  or  ever  can  be,  divorced.  No  one  Christian 
who  has  the  true  Christian  Spirit  of  love  toward 
husband  or  wife,  will  ever  seek  divorce  unless 
it  be  under  such  circumstances  of  infidelity  or 
brutality,  neglect  or  cruelty,  as  renders  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  relation  a  fruitless  casting  of 
the  pearls  of  affection  before  the  swinishness  of 
sensuality.  The  determination  of  the  grounds 
on  which  divorce  shall  be  granted  belongs  to 
the  sphere  of  the  state,  and  is  a  problem  of  social 
self-protection.  The  Christian  church  makes  a 
serious  mistake  when  it  spends  its  energies  in 
trying  to  build  up  legal  and  ecclesiastical  barriers 


238  FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

against  divorce.  Its  real  mission  at  this  point 
is  to  build  up  in  the  hearts  of  its  adherents  the 
Christian  Spirit  which  will  make  marriage  so 
sweet  and  sacred  that  those  who  once  enter  it 
will  find,  as  all  true  Christians  do  find,  divorce 
intolerable  between  two  Christians;  and  tolerable 
even  for  one  Christian  only  as  a  last  resort 
against  hopeless  and  useless  degradation.  To 
translate  Christ's  Spirit  into  the  life  of  the  family 
is  a  much  more  Christian  thing  to  do,  than  to 
attempt  to  enact  this  or  that  somewhat  general 
and  enigmatical  answer  of  His  into  either  civil 
or  ecclesiastical  law.  It  is  generally  a  mistake, 
a  departure  from  the  Spirit  of  the  Master,  when 
the  Christian  community  as  such  turns  from  its 
specific  task  of  positive  upbuilding  of  personality 
to  the  legal  prohibition  of  the  things  that  are 
contrary  to  the  Christian  Spirit.  Laws  and  pro- 
hibitions, statutes  and  penalties  against  drunken- 
ness. Sabbath-breaking,  theft,  murder,  gambling, 
and  divorce,  we  must  have.  But  those  laws  and 
penalties  are  best  devised  and  enforced  by  the 
state,  as  the  representative  of  the  average  senti- 
ment of  the  community  as  a  whole,  rather  than 
by  the  distinctively  Christian  element  in  the  com- 
munity, which  in  the  nature  of  things  is  very  far 
above  the  average  sentiment.      Undoubtedly  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT    OF   LOVE  239 

Christian  Spirit  is  the  only  force  strong  enough  to 
save  the  family  from  degeneration  and  dissolution 
in  this  intensely  individualistic,  independent,  mate- 
rialistic, luxurious  age.  But  we  must  rely  mainly 
on  the  Spirit  working  within,  not  on  a  law  im- 
posed from  without ;  on  the  healing  touch  of  the 
gentle  Master,  not  on  the  hasty  sword  of  the 
impetuous  Peter. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Christian  can  do  with- 
out marriage,  if  it  does  not  offer  itself  under 
the  right  economic,  aesthetic,  moral,  and  spiritual 
conditions.  The  love  of  little  children,  the  train- 
ing of  the  young,  the  service  of  wider  circles  in 
less  intimate  ways,  the  cultivation  of  warm  per- 
sonal friendships  on  lines  of  intellectual,  artistic, 
professional,  social,  or  spiritual  affinity,  affords 
opportunity  for  gaining  outside  of  marriage  many 
of  the  best  gifts  that  marriage  can  confer.  Of 
course,  to  the  true  Christian,  who  reverences  the 
Creative  Wisdom  who  made  us  male  and  female, 
that  He  might  join  us  together  in  the  free  bonds 
of  mutual  love,  all  these  partial  substitutes  for 
marriage  will  ever  wear  the  aspect  of  the  second 
best.  But  through  the  generous  exercise  of  the 
Christian  Spirit  in  these  outside  ways,  this  second 
best  may  be  made  very  good  indeed. 

All  the  devices  for  gratifying  sexual  passions 


240  FROM   EPICURUS    TO    CHRIST 

without  the  assumption  of  permament  responsi- 
bilities, such  as  seduction,  prostitution,  and  the 
keeping  of  mistresses,  Christianity  brands  as  the 
desecration  of  God's  holiest  temple,  the  human 
body,  and  the  wanton  wounding  of  His  most  sen- 
sitive creation,  —  woman's  heart.  The  Greeks 
placed  little  restriction  on  man's  passions  beyond 
such  as  was  necessary  to  maintain  sufficient 
physical  health  and  mental  vigour  to  perform  his 
duties  as  a  citizen  in  peace  and  war.  If  the 
individual  is  complete  in  himself,  with  no  God 
above  who  cares,  no  Christ  who  would  be  grieved, 
no  Spirit  of  love  to  reproach,  no  rights  of  univer- 
sal brotherhood  and  sisterhood  to  be  sensitively 
respected  and  chivalrously  maintained,  then  in- 
deed it  is  impossible  to  make  out  a  valid  claim  for 
severer  control  in  these  matters  than  Plato  and 
Aristotle  advocate.  If  there  are  persons  in  the 
world  who  are  practically  slaves,  persons  who 
have  no  claim  on  our  consideration,  then  licen- 
tiousness and  prostitution  are  logical  and  legiti- 
mate expressions  of  human  nature  and  inevitable 
accompaniments  of  human  society.  Christianity, 
however,  has  freed  the  slave  in  a  deeper  and 
higher  sense  than  the  world  has  yet  realised. 
Christianity  does  not  permit  any  one  who  calls 
himself  a  Christian  to  leave  any  man  or  woman 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF    LOVE  241 

outside  the  pale  of  that  consideration  which  makes 
this  other  person's  dignity,  and  interest,  and  wel- 
fare as  precious  and  sacred  to  him  as  his  own. 
Obviously  all  loose  and  temporary  sexual  con- 
nections involve  such  degradation,  shame,  and 
sorrow  to  the  woman  involved,  that  no  one  who 
holds  her  character,  and  happiness,  and  lasting 
welfare  dear  to  him  can  will  for  her  these  woful 
consequences.  One  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  a 
friend  of  the  kindly,  generous,  sympathetic  Christ 
and  treat  a  woman  in  that  way.  It  is  for  this 
reason,  not  on  cold  ascetic  grounds,  that  Christian- 
ity limits  all  sexual  relations  to  the  monogamous 
family ;  for  there  only  are  the  consequences  to  all 
concerned  such  as  one  can  choose  for  another 
whom  he  really  loves.  If  Christianity,  at  these 
and  other  vital  points,  asks  man  to  give  up  things 
which  Plato  and  Aristotle  permit,  it  is  not  that 
the  Christian  is  narrower  or  more  ascetic  than  they  ; 
it  is  because  Christianity  has  introduced  a  love  so 
much  higher,  and  deeper,  and  broader  than  any- 
thing the  profoundest  Greeks  had  dreamed  of, 
that  it  has  made  what  was  permissible  to  their 
hard  hearts  forever  impossible  for  all  the  more 
sensitive  souls  in  whom  the  love  of  Christ  has 
come  to  dwell. 

Toward  science  and  art,  business  and  politics, 


242  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

the  application  of  the  Christian  Spirit  is  different 
from  anything  we  have  met  before.  The  Christian 
will  not  shirk  these  things,  like  the  Epicurean  and 
the  Stoic ;  because  they  are  ways  of  serving  that 
truth,  beauty,  welfare,  and  order  which  are  in- 
cluded in  the  Father's  will  for  all  his  human  chil- 
dren. In  all  these  things  we  are  co-workers  with 
God  for  the  good  of  man.  Diligence  and  enthusi- 
asm, devotion  and  self-sacrifice  in  one  or  more  of 
these  directions  is  the  imperative  duty,  the  inesti- 
mable privilege  of  every  one  who  would  be  a 
grateful  and  obedient  son  of  God,  a  helpful  and 
efficient  brother  to  his  fellow-men. 

Yet  in  all  his  devotion  to  his  science  or  his  art, 
in  all  the  energy  with  which  he  gives  himself  to 
business  or  politics,  the  Christian  can  never  forget 
that  God  is  greater  than  any  one  of  these  points  at 
which  we  come  in  contact  with  Him;  and  that, 
when  we  have  done  our  utmost  in  one  or  another 
of  these  lines,  we  are  still  comparatively  unprofit- 
able servants  in  his  vast  household.  As  God  is 
more  than  the  thing  at  which  we  work,  so  the 
Christian,  through  relation  to  Him,  is  always  more 
than  his  work.  He  never  lets  his  personality  be- 
come absorbed  and  evaporated  in  the  work  he 
does;  but  ever  renews  his  personal  life  at  the 
fountain  which  is  behind  the  special  work  he  un- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT    OF    LOVE  243 

dertakes  to  do.  Thus  the  true  Christian  is  never 
without  some  useful  social  work  to  do;  and  he 
never  lets  himself  get  lost  in  the  doing  of  it.  To 
keep  this  balance  of  energy  in  the  task  and  eleva- 
tion above  it,  which  enables  one  to  take  success 
without  elation  and  bear  failure  without  depres- 
sion, is  perhaps  the  crowning  achievement  of 
practical  Christianity. 

Finally,  Christianity  is  essentially  self -extending ; 
the  Christian  is  under  spiritual  compulsion  to  be  a 
missionary.  Other  systems  draw  their  little  circles 
of  disciples  about  them,  as  Jesus  drew  his  twelve. 
One  cannot  hold  what  he  believes  to  be  a  true  and 
helpful  view  of  life  without  wishing  to  communi- 
cate it  to  others.  Yet  this  tendency,  which  is 
natural  to  every  principle,  is  characteristic  of 
Christianity  in  a  unique  degree.  For  the  Christian 
Spirit  consists  in  love ;  the  desire  to  give  to  others 
the  best  one  has.  And  what  can  be  so  good,  so 
desirable  to  impart,  as  this  very  Spirit  of  love, 
which  is  Christianity  itself?  That  is  why  the 
Christian  must,  in  some  form  or  other, — by  journey- 
ing to  foreign  lands,  by  contribution  to  missionary 
work  at  home,  by  gifts  to  Christian  education,  by 
support  of  settlement  work,  or  perhaps  best  of  all 
by  the  silent  diffusion  of  a  Christian  example  in 
the  neighbourhood,  or  the  unnoticed  expression  of 


244        FROM  EPICURUS  TO  CHRIST 

the  Christian  Spirit  in  the  home,  —  be  a  propagator 
of  the  Spirit  of  love  he  has  himself  received. 

The  pure  gold  of  the  Spirit  is  most  conveniently 
and  effectually  circulated  when  mixed  with  the 
alloy  of  rites,  ceremonies,  creeds,  officers,  and  or- 
ganisations. Though  no  essential  part  of  the 
pure  Gospel,  yet  these  forms  and  observances, 
these  bishops  and  clergy,  these  covenants  and 
confessions,  are  as  practically  useful  for  the  main- 
tenance and  spread  of  the  Christian  Spirit  as 
courts  and  constitutions,  governors  and  judges  are 
for  the  orderly  conduct  of  the  state.  Their  au- 
thority is  founded  on  their  practical  utility.  When 
their  utiUty  ceases,  when  they  come  to  obscure 
rather  than  reveal  the  Spirit  they  are  intended  to 
express,  then  schism  and  reformation  serve  the 
same  beneficent  purpose  in  the  church  that  decla- 
rations of  independence  and  revolution  have  so 
often  achieved  in  the  state.  That  form  of  church 
government  is  best  which  in  any  given  age 
and  society  works  best;  and  this  may  well  be 
concentrated  personal  authority  in  one  set  of  cir- 
cumstances, and  democratic  representative  admin- 
istration in  another.  Each  has  its  advantages  and 
its  disadvantages.  Modes  of  worship  rest  on  the 
same  practical  basis.  Spontaneous  prayer  or  elab- 
orate ritual;  much   or   little  participation  by  the 


THE   CHRISTIAN  SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  245 

people;  long  or  short  sermons;  prayer-meetings 
or  no  prayer-meetings,  —  all  are  to  be  determined 
by  the  test  of  practical  experience.  It  is  absurd  to 
profess  to  draw  hard  and  fast  rules  about  these 
matters  from  the  precept  or  practice  of  Jesus  and 
his  Apostles,  or  the  early  church  fathers,  working 
as  they  did  under  conditions  so  widely  different 
from  our  own.  Probably  centralised  authority  and 
elaborate  ritual  are  most  effective,  when  bishops 
and  priests  can  be  developed  who  will  not  abuse 
their  power  for  their  own  aggrandisement.  Until 
then,  more  democratic  forms  of  worship  and  of 
government  are  doubtless  more  expedient.  The 
friendly  competition  of  the  two  systems  side  by 
side  helps  to  keep  sacerdotalism  modest  and  make 
independency  effective. 

Creeds  likewise  have  their  practical  usefulness, 
especially  in  times  of  theological  ferment  and  tran- 
sition, serving  the  purposes  of  party  platforms  in 
a  political  campaign.  But  it  is  the  grossest  per- 
version of  their  function  to  make  assent  to  them 
obligatory  on  all  who  wish  to  enjoy  the  most  inti- 
mate Christian  fellowship,  or  to  test  Christian  char- 
acter by  their  formulas.  One  might  as  well  refuse 
citizenship  to  every  person  who  could  not  assent  to 
every  word  in  some  party  platform  or  other.  The 
creed  is  an  intellectual  formulation  of  the  results 


246  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

of  Christian  experience,  interpreting  the  Christian 
revelation ;  and  it  will  vary  from  age  to  age  with 
ripening  experience,  and  maturer  views  of  the  con- 
tent of  the  original  revelation.  No  creed  was  al- 
together false  at  the  time  of  its  formulation.  No 
creed  in  Christendom  is  such  as  every  intelligent 
Christian  can  honestly  assent  to.  The  attempt  to 
make  creed-subscription  a  test  of  church-member- 
ship, or  even  a  condition  of  ministerial  standing,  is 
sure  to  confuse  intellectual  and  spiritual  things  to 
the  serious  disadvantage  of  both.  The  most  sen- 
sitively honest  men  will  more  and  more  decline  to 
enter  the  service  of  the  church,  until  subscription 
to  antiquated  formulas,  long  since  become  incred- 
ible to  the  majority  of  well-trained  scholars,  ceases 
to  be  required  either  literally  or  "  for  substance  of 
doctrine."  It  is  sufficient  that  each  candidate  for 
the  ministry  be  asked  to  make  his  own  statement, 
either  in  his  own  words,  or  in  the  words  of  any 
creed  he  finds  acceptable ;  leaving  it  for  his  breth- 
ren to  decide  whether  or  not  such  intellectual 
statement  is  consistent  with  that  spiritual  service 
which  is  to  be  his  chief  concern.  Unless  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  persons  of  its  leaders  as  well  as  of 
its  laity,  can  breathe  as  free  an  intellectual  atmos- 
phere as  that  of  Stoic  or  Epicurean,  Plato  or  Aris- 
totle, it  will  at  this  point  prove  itself  their  inferior. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  24/ 

Infinitely  superior  as  it  is  in  every  other  respect, 
it  is  a  burning  shame  that  its  timid  and  conserva- 
tive modern  adherents  should  endeavour,  at  this 
point  of  absolute  intellectual  openness  and  integ- 
rity, to  place  it  at  a  disadvantage  with  the  least 
noble  of  its  ancient  competitors.  The  pure  Spirit 
of  personal  Christianity  will  win  the  devotion  of 
all  honest  hearts  and  candid  minds.  But  the  in- 
sistence on  these  antiquated  formulas  is  sure  to 
repel  an  increasing  number  of  the  most  thought- 
ful and  enUghtened  from  organised  Christian 
fellowship.  The  only  serious  reason  for  prefer- 
ring the  independent  to  the  hierarchical  forms  of 
church  organisation  at  the  present  time,  is  the 
tendency  of  the  latter  to  keep  up  these  forms 
of  intellectual  imposition  and  imposture.  Until 
the  church  as  a  whole  shall  rise  to  the  standards 
of  intellectual  honesty  now  universally  prevalent 
in  the  world  of  secular  science,  the  mission  of 
the  independent  protest  will  remain  but  partially 
fulfilled. 

IV 

THE  PERSONAL  FRUITS   OF  THE   SPIRIT 

The  first  fruit  of  the  Christian  Spirit  in  the 
personal  life  is  love.  To  the  Christian  love  is  not 
a  duty  which  he  sets  before  himself,  an  ideal  at 


248  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

which  he  aims,  a  law  he  is  compelled  to  obey. 
He  lives  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Father's  love, 
and  catches  it  from  Him ;  he  walks  in  imaginative 
comradeship  with  Christ  until  Christ's  love  becomes 
his  own;  he  associates  with  other  Christians  in 
works  of  helpfulness  and  mercy,  in  services  of 
gratitude  and  praise,  until  he  becomes  a  partaker 
in  their  enthusiasm.  It  is  simply  the  universal  law 
of  cause  and  effect,  working  here  in  the  realm  of 
personal  relationships.  If  a  man  could  live  in  rev- 
erent communion  with  the  goodness  of  the  Father ; 
if  he  could  live  in  sympathetic  contact  with  the 
character  of  Christ;  if  he  could  have  fellowship 
with  other  Christian  people,  and  not  become  more 
just  and  kind  and  helpful  to  the  people  whom  he 
meets  in  the  daily  intercourse  of  life,  that  would 
be  the  one  solitary  case  in  all  this  universe  in 
which  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  failed  to  work. 
Love  follows  from  the  maintenance  of  these  spirit- 
ual relationships  as  inevitably  as  light  and  warmth 
follow  the  admission  of  sunshine  to  a  room. 

Another  characteristic  manifestation  of  the 
Christian  Spirit  is  modesty.  Modesty  is  as  impos- 
sible of  direct  cultivation  as  love  itself.  It  isn't 
safe  to  talk  or  even  think  about  it  much.  As 
Pascal  remarks,  "Few  people  talk  of  humility 
humbly."     Like   love   it  is   the   manifestation  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  249 

something  deeper  than  itself.  Unless  one  is  in  in- 
timate personal  relations  with  one  whom  he  reveres 
as  greater,  stronger,  better  than  himself,  it  is  obvi- 
ously impossible  for  him  to  be  modest.  If  he  is  in 
such  relations,  it  is  equally  impossible  for  him  not 
to  be  modest.  Hence,  as  love  is  the  inmost  quality 
of  the  Christian,  the  inevitable  manifestation  to  his 
fellow-men  of  what  the  Father  is  to  him,  so  mod- 
esty is  the  surest  outward  sign  of  this  inward 
grace.  Conceit  is  a  public  proclamation  of  the 
poverty  of  one's  personal  relations.  For  if  this 
conceited  fellow,  this  vain  woman,  really  had  the 
honour  of  the  intimate  acquaintance  of  some  one 
better  and  greater  than  their  petty,  miserable 
selves,  they  could  not  possibly  be  the  vain,  con- 
ceited creatures  that  they  are.  Every  one,  who 
lives  in  the  presence  of  the  great  Father,  and 
walks  in  the  company  of  his  glorious  Son,  is 
sure  to  find  modesty  and  humility  the  natural  and 
spontaneous  expression  of  his  side  of  these  great 
relationships. 

Joy  is  another  quality,  incapable  of  direct  culti- 
vation with  entire  success,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Epicureans,  which  follows  incidentally  and 
inevitably  from  the  maintenance  of  these  great 
Christian  relationships.  A  gloomy,  depressed, 
despondent  tone  and  temper,  unless  it  be  demon- 


250  FROM   EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

strably  pathological,  is  public  proclamation  that 
the  deep  mines  of  these  Christian  relationships, 
with  their  inexhaustible  resources,  are  either  un- 
developed or  unworked.  For  no  man  who  looks 
through  sunshine  and  shower,  through  food  and 
raiment,  through  family  and  friendship,  through 
society  and  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  up  into 
the  face  of  the  Giver  of  them  all  as  his  Father; 
who  knows  how  to  summon  to  his  side  the  gentle 
and  gracious  companionship  of  Christ,  alike  in  the 
pressure  of  perplexity  and  in  the  quiet  of  solitude ; 
who  knows  how  to  unlock  the  treasures  of  Chris- 
tian literature,  to  appropriate  the  meaning  of 
Christian  worship,  and  to  avail  himself  of  the 
comfort  and  support  that  is  always  latent  in  the 
hearts  of  his  Christian  friends ;  —  no  man  in  whom 
these  vast  personal  resources  are  developed  and 
employed  can  ever  long  remain  disconsolate. 

Even  in  prosperity,  popularity,  and  outward  suc- 
cess it  takes  considerable  mixture  of  these  deeper 
elements  to  keep  the  tone  of  life  constantly  on  the 
high  level  of  joy.  But  adversity  is  the  real  test. 
Then  the  man  without  these  interior  resources 
gives  way,  breaks  down,  becomes  querulous,  fret- 
ful, irritable,  sour.  On  the  other  hand,  the  man 
who  can  make  mistakes,  and  take  the  criticism  they 
bring,  and  go  on  as  cheerfully  as  if  no  blunder  had 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  25 1 

been  made  and  no  vote  of  censure  had  been 
passed ;  the  man  who  can  be  hated  for  the  good 
things  he  tries  to  do,  and  condemned  for  bad 
things  he  never  did  and  never  meant  to  do;  the 
man  who  can  work  hard,  and  contentedly  take 
poverty  for  pay;  the  man  who  can  serve  devot- 
edly people  who  revile  and  betray  him  in  return ; 
the  man  who  can  discount  in  advance  the  unpopu- 
larity, misrepresentation,  and  defeat  a  right  course 
will  cost,  and  then  resolutely  set  about  it ;  the  man 
who  takes  persecution  and  treachery  as  serenely 
as  other  men  take  honours  and  emoluments;  — 
this  man  you  may  be  sure  has  dug  deep  and  in- 
vested heavily  in  the  iield  where  the  priceless 
Christian  treasure  lies  concealed. 

Peace,  and  the  price  of  peace,  which  is  forgive- 
ness, are  the  next  manifestations  of  the  Christian 
Spirit.  Not  that  the  Christian  is  unwilling  or 
afraid  to  fight.  Where  deliberate  wrong  is  arrayed 
against  the  rights  of  men ;  where  fraud  is  practised 
on  the  unprotected ;  where  hypocrisy  imposes  on 
the  credulous ;  where  vice  betrays  the  innocent ; 
where  inefficiency  sacrifices  precious  human  inter- 
ests ;  where  avarice  oppresses  the  poor ;  where 
tyranny  tramples  on  the  weak;  there  the  man 
who  shares  the  Father's  love  for  his  maltreated 
children,  the  man  who  walks   daily  in  the   com- 


252  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

panionship  of  the  Christ  who  owns  all  the  down- 
trodden as  his  brothers,  will  be  the  most  fearless 
and  uncompromising  foe  of  every  form  of  injustice 
and  oppression.  Property,  reputation,  position, 
time,  strength,  influence,  health,  life  itself  if  need 
be,  will  be  thrown  unreservedly  into  the  fight 
against  vice  and  sin.  He  cannot  keep  in  with  the 
Father  and  with  Christ,  and  not  come  out  in  oppo- 
sition to  everything  that  wrongs  and  injures  the 
humblest  man,  the  lowliest  woman,  the  most  de- 
fenceless little  child. 

Fighting,  however,  is  not  altogether  uncongenial 
to  the  descendants  of  our  brute  progenitors.  To 
fight  our  own  battles,  and  occasionally  a  few  for 
our  neighbours,  comes  all  too  naturally  to  most  of 
us.  Fighting  God's  battles  on  principle  is  a  very 
different  thing.  To  feel  entirely  tranquil  in  the 
midst  of  the  combat;  to  know  that  we  are  not 
alone  on  the  side  of  the  right;  to  have  the  real 
interests  of  our  opponents  at  heart  all  the  time; 
to  be  ever  ready  to  forgive  them,  and  to  ask  their 
forgiveness  for  any  excess  of  zeal  we  may  have 
shown ;  to  have  the  peace  of  God  in  our  hearts, 
and  no  trace  of  malice,  in  deed,  or  word,  or  thought, 
or  feeling ;  —  this  is  not  altogether  natural ;  and  the 
man  who  does  his  fighting  on  that  basis  gives 
pretty  good  assurance  of  dwelling  in  the  Christian 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  253 

Spirit.  No  other  adequate  provision  for  maintain- 
ing peace  in  the  midst  of  effective  warfare,  and 
making  peace  for  others  as  well  as  for  ourselves 
the  instant  the  need  for  war  is  over,  has  ever 
been  devised.  The  peacemakers  of  this  fearless, 
earnest,  strenuous  type  have  the  unmistakable 
right  to  be  called  the  children  of  God. 

There  is  one  species  of  fidelity  which,  though 
it  has  been  occasionally  reached  by  other  ap- 
proaches, is  a  pretty  sure  sign  that  one  who 
manifests  it  has  acquired  the  Christian  Spirit.  It 
is  not  the  fidelity  which  is  born  of  self-interest  and 
ambition.  It  is  not  the  fidelity  which  comes  from 
intense  devotion  to  some  congenial  artistic  or 
literary  or  scientific  or  practical  pursuit.  It  is 
fidelity  in  the  nameless  details  of  drudgery,  which 
have  no  direct  and  traceable  connection  with  one's 
self-interest,  and  stand  in  no  obvious  relation  to 
great  intellectual  and  aesthetic  ends.  Especially 
in  the  close  contact  of  the  home,  in  the  complex 
connections  of  business,  in  the  intricate  working 
of  politics,  there  are  ten  thousand  chances  to 
slight  duties  and  shirk  difficulties  in  such  a  way 
that  the  evil  effects  will  be  distributed  among  so 
many  people  that  no  one  will  be  able  to  trace 
them  to  their  source  in  our  unfaithfulness.  The 
forester,  the  plumber,  the  agent,  the  operative,  the 


254  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

expert,  the  professional  man,  all  have  these 
chances  to  shift  a  part  of  the  burden  of  their 
work  onto  people  who  will  never  so  much  as  con- 
sciously recognise  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
wronged.  Of  course  this  is  one  aspect  of  the 
problem  which  Plato  raised.  But  the  Christian 
answer  is  somewhat  different  from  his. 

To  the  Christian,  these  people  whose  lives, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  affected 
by  his  action,  are  dear  children  of  his  Father, 
beloved  brothers  and  sisters  of  his  Lord ;  and 
therefore  even  a  concealed,  unrecognised  injury  to 
them  is  at  the  same  time  an  injury  to  the  Father's 
love  which  is  the  Christian's  very  life  ;  to  Christ's 
ministry,  which  it  is  his  highest  privilege  to  share. 

Christian  fidelity,  like  all  the  other  qualities  we 
have  considered,  is  not  something  to  be  aimed  at 
directly;  it  comes  rather  as  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  dwelling  in  the  Christian  Spirit.  It  is 
like  all  these  quaUties,  the  working  in  and  through 
us  of  the  Father  to  whom  we  give  ourselves,  the 
Christ  whom  we  receive,  and  the  Spirit  we  share 
with  all  our  Christian  brothers. 

Christian  sacrifice  is  merely  the  negative  side  of 
Christian  fidelity  in  service.  It  closely  resembles 
Greek  temperance  and  courage.  There  is,  how- 
ever,  this  essential    distinction.      The    Christian 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  255 

takes  on,  not  merely  the  pains  and  privations 
which  are  essential  to  his  personal  welfare,  or  the 
welfare  of  his  community  or  state;  he  takes  on 
whatever  suffering  the  Father's  love  for  all  his 
children  calls  him  to  undergo ;  gives  up  whatever 
indulgences  the  service  of  Christ  requires  him  to 
dispense  with  ;  adopts  whatever  mingling  of  hard- 
ship and  self-denial  will  keep  him  in  most  effective 
and  sympathetic  fellowship  with  those  who  have 
discovered  the  same  great  spiritual  secret  as  him- 
self. Thus,  though  to  the  uninitiated  outsider 
much  of  his  life  looks  hard  and  severe,  on  the 
inside  it  is  easy  and  light ;  for  the  companionship 
with  the  Father,  with  Christ,  and  with  Christian 
people  is  so  much  greater  and  dearer  than  the 
material  and  sensuous  delights  it  may  incidentally 
take  away,  that  on  the  inside  it  does  not  wear  the 
aspect  of  loss  and  sacrifice  at  all ;  but  rather  that 
of  a  glory  and  a  gain.  Still,  since  this  element 
of  pleasant  things  foregone,  and  hard  things 
endured,  is  ever  present,  and  since  it  has  to 
be  judged  by  people  on  the  outside  as  well  as 
by  those  on  the  inside  of  the  experience,  in  rec- 
ognition of  this  truth  Christianity  has  made 
its  symbol  before  the  uninitiated  world  the  cross. 
As  in  the  life  of  the  Master,  so  in  the  life  of 
every  faithful  disciple,  the  cross  must  be  borne, 


256  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

the  perpetual  sacrifice  must  be  made,  as  the  price 
of  love's  presence  in  a  world  of  selfishness  and 
hate ;  but  the  cross  is  transfigured  into  a  crown 
of  rejoicing,  the  sacrifice  is  transformed  into  priv- 
ilege and  pleasure  by  those  precious  personal 
relationships  which  are  the  supreme  glory  and 
gladness  of  the  soul,  and  which  could  be  maintained 
on  no  cheaper  terms.  The  sacrifice  that  the  Chris- 
tian makes  to  get  his  Father's  will,  his  Master's 
mission,  accomplished  in  the  world  which  so  sorely 
needs  it,  is  like  the  sacrifice  a  mother  makes  for 
her  sick  and  suffering  child,  —  the  dearest  and 
sweetest  experience  of  life.  The  cross  thus  gladly 
borne,  the  yoke  of  sacrifice  thus  unostentatiously 
assumed,  is  the  supreme  expression  of  the  Chris- 
tian Spirit. 


CHRISTIAN  THERAPEUTICS 

Love  and  joy,  modesty  and  peace,  fidelity  and 
sacrifice,  are  essential  manifestations  of  the  Chris- 
tian Spirit.  Their  presence  is  a  sure  sign  of  the 
Christian  life  within;  their  absence  an  almost 
infalUble  sign  that  the  connection  between  the 
soul  and  God  has  become  atrophied,  or  severed. 
Is   physical   health  another   such   manifestation  .-* 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT    OF    LOVE  25/ 

Logically  it  is.  Practically  sometimes  it  is  and 
sometimes  it  is  not. 

If  one  were  to  live  profoundly  and  constantly 
in  the  Christian  Spirit;  if  all  the  people  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact  were  doing  likewise ; 
if  the  ancestors  from  whom  he  inherited  his 
physical  constitution  and  tendencies  had  done 
the  same;  he  would  be  in  almost  continuous  and 
perfect  physical  health.  Even  in  this  supposed 
case,  it  is  necessary  to  introduce  the  qualifying 
word  "almost."  For  accident,  exposure,  strain, 
the  consequences  of  ignorance,  and  some  forms 
of  germ  diseases  against  which  the  best  tone  of 
the  system  fails  to  provide  absolute  immunity, 
would  occasionally  induce  passing  pathological 
conditions.  The  healthy  child  in  a  wisely  con- 
ducted household,  free  from  all  care,  worry,  com- 
plication, and  strain,  often  maintains  this  unbroken 
health  for  long  periods.  It  is  Nature's  intention, 
a  logical  product  of  her  effort  to  fit  man  and  his 
environment  to  each  other  by  the  elimination  of 
the  unfit,  in  more  religious  language,  it  is  the  will 
of  God  that  all  His  children  should  be  well. 

In  actual  practice  this  will  of  God,  this  pro- 
vision of  Nature,  this  logical  birthright  of  man 
is  thwarted,  compromised,  defeated.  Defective 
hygiene,  bad  sanitation,  false  ambition,  perverse 
s 


258  FROM   EPICURUS   TO    CHRIST 

interference,  social  custom,  business  anxiety, 
domestic  infelicity,  foolish  worry,  senseless  anger, 
together  with  the  inheritance  of  some  of  these 
same  tendencies  from  our  ancestors,  and  the  re- 
flection of  them  from  our  associates ;  aided,  in 
many  cases,  by  drugs,  stimulants,  narcotics,  and 
opiates,  combine  to  make  the  physical  condition 
of  most  men  and  women  far  below  normal.  Over- 
eating, and  eating  indigestible  things  at  unrea- 
sonable hours ;  drinking  for  stimulation  rather 
than  to  satisfy  thirst;  shallow  breathing  of  viti- 
ated air;  insufficient  and  belated  sleep,  help  to 
increase  the  evil.  The  grosser  vices  entail 
loathsome  and  hideous  penalties  of  their  own. 
Thus  in  an  artificial  civilisation,  where  people 
take  their  aims  and  standards  from  the  customs 
and  expectations  of  their  neighbours,  rather  than 
from  their  own  normal  wants  and  interests,  in 
addition  to  diseases  due  to  accident,  exposure, 
strain,  and  contagion,  there  spring  up  a  vast  crop 
of  indefinite  and  chronic  diseases,  disabilities,  and 
degenerations;  due  partly  to  malnutrition,  partly 
to  overwrought  nerves  and  underworked  muscles, 
partly  to  unconscious  inhibitions  and  contractions, 
partly  to  suppressed  secretions,  partly  to  fear, 
partly  to  worry,  partly  to  luxury,  partly  to  sensu- 
ality, partly  to  imagination.     These   diseases  are 


THE  CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT  OF  LOVE  259 

none  the  less  real  because  of  their  mental  and 
moral  origin.  They  disqualify  the  unfortunate 
patients  who  are  afflicted  with  them  from  useful- 
ness, happiness,  and  loveliness  just  as  completely 
as  if  we  could  trace  their  origin  to  a  broken  bone, 
a  consolidated  lung,  or  a  specific  form  of  bacteria. 
Now  since  Christian  people,  Uving  intensely  in 
a  Christian  atmosphere,  surrounded  by  other  peo- 
ple who  were  doing  the  same,  would  be  free  from 
these  innumerable  afflictions,  it  is  not  altogether 
untrue  or  unjust  to  call  them  the  penalties  of  sin 
and  disobedience.  Most  of  these  sufferers,  how- 
ever, are  entirely  unconscious  of  their  sins. 
Hence  if  we  call  them  sinners,  we  must  in  the 
same  breath  disclaim  any  imputation  of  guilt  in 
the  matter.  Many  of  them  have  done  everything 
they  suppose  it  is  necessary  to  do  in  order  to  be 
Christians,  and  are  entirely  innocent  of  any  pur- 
pose to  do  anything  contrary  to  the  will  of  God, 
as  expressed  in  the  laws  of  physiology,  psychol- 
ogy, morals,  or  sociology.  Nevertheless  they  are 
practically  outside  the  Christian  atmosphere  of 
entire  surrender,  devotion,  trust,  and  confidence; 
they  are  almost  ignorant  of  that  attitude  of  re- 
sponsiveness and  hope  and  invincibility  which 
can  never  be  directly  put  on  from  the  outside,  but 
springs  up  within  the  soul  of  every  one  to  whom 


260  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

the  Father  is  a  perpetual  presence,  Christ  an  in- 
timate companion,  and  other  Christian  people  a 
recognised  source  of  comfort  and  inspiration. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  describe  in  words  this 
fundamental  difference  between  those  who  have 
and  those  who  have  not  the  Christian  Spirit 
in  conscious,  and  therefore  constantly  available, 
form ;  and  to  show  that  the  tendency  of  the 
one  condition  is  toward  perfect  health,  and  the 
tendency  of  the  other  condition  is  toward  count- 
less forms  of  degeneration  and  disease.  The  real 
difficulty  begins  when  we  ask  the  crucial  question : 
"  Can  one  person  have  the  Christian  Spirit  in 
such  intense,  communicable,  contagious  form  as 
to  become  a  medium  of  communication  to  one 
who  has  it  not,  and  thus  assist  nature  in  the 
healing  of  those  diseases  which  are  directly  or 
indirectly  due  to  conscious  or  unconscious  lack 
of  the  Christian  Spirit?" 

Such  healing  is  obviously  not  impossible.  One 
person  undoubtedly  can  communicate  his  mental, 
volitional,  and  emotional  states  to  another  person, 
either  with  or  without  verbal  symbols  and  the 
ordinary  forms  of  gesture  and  facial  expression. 
States  thus  induced  by  another  may  be  just  as 
potent  over  the  organism  of  the  person  who  re- 
ceives  them  as   states   which   originated   in    the 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  26 1 

person  himself.  The  analogy  of  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion, and  the  unquestioned  fact  that  genuine 
cures  are  wrought  through  its  aid,  makes  the 
healing  of  diseases  of  a  certain  kind  by  the  com- 
munication of  the  Christian  Spirit  not  only  pos- 
sible but  probable.  The  passes  and  the  sleep 
of  hypnotism  are  the  accidental  and  physical, 
not  the  essential  and  psychical,  side  of  the  process. 
The  essential  fact  in  hypnotism  is  the  power  of 
ideas,  emotions,  and  volitions  suggested  by  one 
mind  to  acquire  such  dominance  in  another  mind 
as  to  control  both  the  voluntary  and  involuntary 
processes  of  the  organism  connected  with  that 
other  mind.  There  is  certainly  no  reason  why 
Christian  ideas,  emotions,  and  volitions  should 
not  be  capable  of  communication  in  some  such 
way ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  every  reason  why  they 
should. 

Finally,  in  the  primitive  Christian  community, 
in  mediaeval  Catholicism,  in  certain  phases  of 
current  Christianity,  there  is  considerable  evi- 
dence of  such  healing  through  the  power  of  the 
Christian  Spirit  induced  in  one  person  by  another. 
Probably  there  are  large  elements  of  credulity, 
false  diagnosis,  exaggeration,  imagination,  in  the 
accounts  of  all  these  cures,  primitive,  mediaeval, 
and  modem.     It  is  equally  probable,  we  may  as 


262  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

well  say  it  is  certain,  that  there  is  also  an 
element  of  truth  in  all  three  classes  of  cures. 
Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  investigate 
can  find  people  who  have  been  healed  of  real 
complaints,  and  have  derived  lasting  benefit, 
both  physical  and  moral,  from  the  "treatment" 
they  have  received. 

Shall  we  therefore  all  make  haste  to  call  our- 
selves "  Christian  Scientists,"  or  some  of  the 
many  less  pretentious  names  for  essentially  the 
same  thing  ?  God  forbid.  Healing  of  certain 
forms  of  disease  in  this  way  is  a  corollary,  an  inci- 
dental and  occasional  consequence,  by  no  means 
the  main  proposition  of  Christianity.  Compara- 
tively few  Christian  people  have  the  gift  to  impart 
Christian  ideas,  emotions,  and  volitions  in  this  con- 
tagious or  insistently  suggestive  form.  Besides, 
many  people  who  would  not  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians are  able  to  do  nearly  the  same  thing.  It  was  so 
in  the  days  of  primitive  Christianity  ;  it  is  so  now. 
Healing  is  not,  like  love,  joy,  peace,  modesty, 
fidelity,  sacrifice,  an  essential  manifestation  of  the 
Christian  Spirit.  Most  Christians  are  not  aware  of 
having  a  particle  of  such  healing  power.  The 
Apostle  Paul,  indeed,  enumerates  it  among  the 
"gifts"  which  not  every  Christian  is  expected  to 
have.     The  attempt  to  organise  the  worship  and 


THE    CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  263 

life  of  a  Christian  community  around  this  inci- 
dental and  comparatively  rare  "gift"  is  to  rush 
headlong  into  bad  metaphysics  and  boundless 
superstition. 

This  particular  phase  of  Christian  experience, 
highly  exceptional,  dealing  with  the  pathological, 
easily  exploited  by  charlatans  and  cranks,  has 
been  rediscovered  in  our  day ;  and,  like  all  discov- 
eries and  rediscoveries,  has  brought  with  it  much 
that  is  crude,  fantastic,  untenable.  It  has  also 
brought  with  it  a  certain  direct  and  first-hand  ex- 
perience of  the  Christian  Spirit  which  had  well-nigh 
fled  in  despair  from  the  formalism  and  dogmatism 
of  some  of  our  ecclesiastical  establishments.  It 
may  be  that  there  is  to-day  more  of  the  genuine 
manifestations  of  the  Christian  Spirit,  more  love, 
joy,  modesty,  peace,  fidelity,  and  sacrifice,  in  the 
average  Christian  Science  group,  than  in  many  a 
Christian  church.  The  comparatively  few  people 
who  come  out  into  a  new  movement  are  always  of 
a  more  intense  and  zealous  type  than  the  com- 
paratively many  who  stay  in  an  old  one.  Never- 
theless, these  new  cults,  with  their  impossible 
assumptions,  and  their  distorted  emphasis,  can 
never  begin  to  do  the  work  which  churches  with 
more  rational  philosophical  foundations,  and  more 
balanced  sense  of  the  relative  importance  of  the 


264  FROM  EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

various  aspects  of  the  Christian  Gospel  have  done, 
and  will  continue  to  do.  In  these  cults  a  grain  of 
truth  —  a  grain,  to  be  sure,  which  most  of  the  reg- 
ular churches  had  lost  sight  of  altogether — is  hid 
in  a  haymow  of  unintelligible  metaphysical  jargon. 
It  is  a  challenge  to  the  churches,  not  to  disband 
and  go  over  to  the  new  cults,  but  to  recover  their 
vital  communion  with  the  Father  of  both  physical 
and  human  nature ;  and  through  such  communion 
rediscover  the  truths,  both  large  and  small,  which 
such  participation  in  the  life  of  God,  when  realised 
on  any  considerable  scale,  carries  in  its  train.  The 
church  must  recover  these  minor  phases  of  truth 
it  has  let  slip  out  of  its  grasp,  and  thus  left  for  less 
reasonable  cults  to  monopolise. 

One  may  frankly  recognise  the  element  of  truth 
and  the  possibility  of  usefulness  there  is  in  these 
forms  of  mental  healing,  and  accept  it  as  an 
incidental  corollary  of  the  Christian  principle,  and 
at  the  same  time  have  as  much  respect  as  ever  for 
the  scientific  physician  and  the  broadly  trained 
clergyman.  A  railroad  magnate  has  remarked 
that  the  steam  railroads  made  a  great  mistake 
in  trying  to  fight  the  electric  roads,  when  they 
should  have  bought  them  up,  and  consolidated 
them  into  the  existing  system.  The  Christian 
church  will  gain  nothing  by  attempting  to  deny 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  265 

the  facts  of  mental  healing,  or  the  psychological 
principles  which  underlie  them.  It  will  be  much 
better  employed  in  making  its  own  life  so  deep, 
and  sweet,  and  vital,  that  healers  and  healed 
will  find  in  it  the  same  essential  manifestations 
of  close  union  with  the  living  God,  that  some  of 
them  at  present  seem  to  find  more  satisfactorily 
outside  its  fold. 

It  is  gratifying  to  note  on  the  part  of  the 
"  Christian  Scientists "  a  disposition  at  certain 
indefensible  positions  to  compromise  with  com- 
mon sense.  To  be  sure,  the  surrender  is  usually 
couched  in  condescending  terms  intended  to  cover 
consistency's  retreat.  For  instance,  the  later  edi- 
tions of  **  Science  and  Health "  make  the  follow- 
ing concession  to  current  prejudice :  "  Until  the 
advancing  age  admits  the  efficacy  and  supremacy 
of  Mind,  it  is  better  to  leave  surgery,  and  the 
adjustment  of  broken  bones  and  dislocations  to 
the  fingers  of  a  surgeon,  while  you  confine  your- 
self chiefly  to  mental  reconstruction  and  the 
prevention  of  inflammation."  In  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  of  December,  1902,  the  leader  of 
the  movement  suggests  that  "Until  the  public 
thought  becomes  better  acquainted  with  Christian 
Science,  Christian  Scientists  decline  to  doctor 
infectious   or  contagious   diseases."      All  this  is 


266  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

full  of  promise  of  increasing  sanity.  On  the 
other  hand,  an  article  like  that  of  Dr.  John  W. 
Churchman  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  of  April,  1904, 
is  a  welcome  indication  that,  without  in  the  least 
accepting  the  philosophical  interpretations  offered 
by  the  leaders  of  these  movements,  thoughtful  and 
candid  men  are  frankly  recognising  that,  "how- 
ever great  be  the  limitations  in  our  theory,  the 
relation  of  intelligence  to  disease  is  a  clinical 
reality  "  ;  that  "  the  habit  of  mind  seems  to  be  an 
important  factor  in  determining  the  occurrence 
or  issue  of  disease  "  ;  that  "  the  therapeutic  deduc- 
tion is  obvious " ;  and  that  "  it  is  a  deduction 
which  a  generation  destined  to  a  high-tension  life 
(such  as  the  coming  generation  will  necessarily 
lead)  would  do  well  to  write  on  the  tablets  of  their 
hearts."  In  short,  there  is  an  element  of  truth  in 
this  corollary  —  small  in  proportion  to  the  total 
significance  and  sweep  of  Christianity  —  which 
Christianity  will  have  to  re-absorb. 

VI 

CATHOLIC   CHRISTIANITY 

Inasmuch  as  Christianity  is  not  primarily  an 
intellectual  principle,  but  a  personal  relationship,  a 
Spirit,  it  follows  that  it  is  capable  of  absorbing  into 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  26/ 

itself  all  the  truth  the  previous  principles  con- 
tained. In  spite  of  the  marvellous  sanity,  and 
breadth,  and  charity  of  the  Founder,  primitive 
Christianity  quickly  fell  into  certain  forms  of 
narrowness,  asceticism,  and  superstition.  The 
Christianity  we  live  by  to-day  is  obviously  not 
identical  with  that  of  the  early  church  fathers, 
or  even  of  the  Apostles.  Jesus  never  meant 
that  any  one  set  of  views  and  practices  should 
be  perpetual.  He  imparted  a  Spirit  which  is 
able  to  absorb  and  utilise  whatever  is  true;  to 
shake  off  and  repudiate  whatever  is  false,  in  any 
set  of  principles  or  practices  that  have  been,  or 
from  time  to  time  may  be,  current  in  the  world. 
Just  now  the  results  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
in  physical  science,  and  the  results  of  literary  and 
historical  criticism  in  the  study  of  sacred  books, 
are  thus  being  absorbed  into  the  mass  of  materials 
which  the  Christian  Spirit  is  to  use  as  its  intel- 
lectual tools.  Without  entering  these  fields,  it 
will  be  sufficient  for  our  present  purpose  to  indi- 
cate how  the  Christian  Spirit  has  taken  up,  or  is 
able  to  take  up,  into  itself  whatever  we  have 
found  valuable  in  the  four  systems  we  have  been 
studying. 

The  Epicurean's  varied  and  spontaneous  joy  in 
life  is  not  diminished,  but  enhanced,  by  the  Chris- 


268  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

tian  Spirit,  which  multiplies  this  joy  as  many  times 
as  there  are  persons  whom  one  knows  and  loves. 
The  Epicurean  lives  in  the  little  world  of  himself, 
and  a  few  equally  self-centred  companions.  The 
Christian  lives  in  the  great  world  of  God,  and 
shares  its  joys  with  all  God's  human  children.  It 
is  the  absence  of  this  larger  world,  the  exclusive 
concern  for  his  own  narrow  pleasures,  that  makes 
the  consistent  Epicurean,  with  all  his  polish  and 
charm,  the  essentially  mean  and  despicable  creature 
we  found  him  to  be. 

To  be  sure,  Mill,  Spencer,  and  others  have 
endeavoured  to  graft  the  altruistic  fruits  of 
Christianity  onto  the  old  Epicurean  stock.  There 
is  this  great  difference,  however,  between  such 
Christianised  Epicureanism  as  that  of  Mill  and 
Spencer,  and  Christianity  itself.  These  systems 
have  no  logical  bridge,  no  emotional  bond  by 
which  to  pass  from  the  pleasures  of  self  to  the 
pleasures  of  other  people.  They  can  and  do  point 
out  the  incompleteness  of  merely  egoistic  Epicu- 
reanism ;  they  exhort  us  to  care  for  the  pleasures 
of  others  as  we  do  for  our  own.  But  the  logical 
nexus,  the  moral  dynamic,  the  spiritual  motive,  is 
lacking  in  these  systems ;  and  consequently  these 
systems  fail  to  work,  except  with  the  few  highly 
altruistic  souls  who  need  no  spiritual  physician. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  269 

This  logical  bond,  this  moral  dynamic,  this  spirit- 
ual motive  which  impels  toward  altruistic  conduct, 
the  Christian  finds  in  Christ.  He  certainly  did 
love  all  men,  and  care  for  their  happiness  as  dearly 
as  he  cared  for  his  own.  But  this  same  Christ 
is  the  Christian's  Lord  and  Master  and  Friend. 
Yet  friendship  for  him,  the  acceptance  of  him 
as  Lord  and  Master,  is  a  contradiction  in  terms, 
unless  one  is  at  the  same  time  willing  to  cul- 
tivate his  Spirit,  which  is  the  Spirit  of  service,  the 
Spirit  which  holds  the  happiness  and  welfare  of 
others  just  as  sacred  and  precious  as  one's  own. 
He  that  hath  not  this  Spirit  of  Christ  is  none  of 
His.  Hence  what  men  like  Mill  and  Spencer 
preach  as  a  duty,  and  support  by  what  their  critics 
have  found  to  be  very  inadequate  and  fallacious 
logical  processes,  Christianity  proclaims  as  a  fact 
in  the  nature  of  God,  as  embodied  in  Christ ;  and 
a  condition  of  the  divine  life  for  every  one  who  de- 
sires to  be  a  child  of  God,  a  follower  and  friend  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Christianity,  therefore,  includes 
everything  of  value  in  Epicureanism,  and  infinitely 
more.  It  has  the  Epicurean  gladness  without  its 
exclusiveness ;  its  joy  without  its  selfishness;  its 
naturalness  without  its  baseness ;  its  geniality  with- 
out its  heartlessness. 

In  like  manner  Christianity  takes  up  all  that  is 


270  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

true  in  the  Stoic  teaching,  without  falling  into  its 
hardness  and  narrowness.  The  truth  of  the  Stoic 
teaching  consisted  in  its  power  to  transform  into 
an  expression  of  the  man  himself,  and  of  the 
beneficent  laws  of  Nature,  whatever  outward  cir- 
cumstance might  befall  him.  Now  put  in  place 
of  the  abstract  self  the  love  of  the  perfect  Christ, 
and  instead  of  universal  law  the  loving  will  of 
the  Father  for  all  his  children,  and  you  have  a 
deepened,  sweetened,  softened  Stoicism  which  is 
identical  with  a  sturdy,  strenuous,  and  virile  Chris- 
tianity. 

If  a  man  has  in  his  heart  the  earnest  desire  to 
be  like  Christ,  and  to  do  the  things  that  help  to 
carry  out  Christ's  Spirit  in  the  world,  it  is  abso- 
lutely impossible  that  he  should  ever  find  himself 
in  a  situation  where  what  he  most  desires  to  do 
cannot  be  done.  Now  a  man  who  in  every  con- 
ceivable situation  can  do  what  he  most  desires  to 
do  is  as  completely  "  master  of  his  fate "  and 
"  captain  of  his  soul,"  as  the  most  strenuous  Stoic 
ever  prayed  to  be.  And  yet  he  is  saved  from  the 
coldness  and  hardness  and  repulsiveness  of  the 
mere  Stoic,  because  the  object  of  his  devotion, 
the  aim  of  his  assertion,  is  not  his  own  barren, 
frigid,  formal  self,  but  the  kindly,  sympathetic, 
loving  Christ,  whom  he  has  chosen  to  be  his  better 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  27I 

self.  Like  the  Stoic,  he  brings  every  thought  into 
captivity;  but  it  is  not  the  captivity  of  a  prison, 
the  empty  chamber  of  his  individual  soul,  swept 
and  garnished ;  it  is  captivity  to  the  most  gracious 
and  gentle  and  generous  person  the  world  has 
ever  known,  —  it  is  captivity  to  Christ. 

When  misfortune  and  calamity  overtakes  him, 
he  transforms  it  into  a  blessing  and  a  discipline, 
not  like  the  mere  Stoic  through  passive  resigna- 
tion to  an  impersonal  law,  as  of  gravitation,  or 
electricity,  or  bacteriology,  but  through  active 
devotion  to  that  glory  of  God  which  is  to  be 
furthered  mainly  by  kindness  and  sympathy  and 
service  to  our  fellow-men.  The  man  who  has  this 
love  of  Christ  in  his  heart,  and  who  is  devoted 
to  the  doing  of  the  Father's  loving  will,  can 
exclaim  in  every  untoward  circumstance,  "  I  can 
do  all  things  in  Him  that  strengtheneth  me."  He 
can  shout  with  more  than  Stoic  defiance :  "  O 
death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is 
thy  victory  ?  "  In  all  the  literature  of  Stoic  exul- 
tation in  the  face  of  frowning  danger  and  impend- 
ing doom,  there  is  nothing  that  can  match  the 
splendid  outburst  of  the  great  Apostle :  "  Who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  Shall 
tribulation,  or  anguish,  or  persecution,  or  famine, 
or  nakedness,  or  peril,   or  sword?     Nay,  in  all 


2/2  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through 
Him  that  loved  us.  For  I  am  persuaded  that 
neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principal- 
ities, nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor 
powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

Everything  that  we  found  noble,  and  strong,  and 
brave  in  Stoicism  we  find  also  here ;  the  power  to 
transform  external  evil  into  internal  good ;  and  to 
hold  so  tightly  to  our  self-chosen  good  that  no 
power  in  earth  or  heaven  can  ever  wrest  it  from 
us,  —  a  good  so  universal  that  the  circumstance  is 
inconceivable  in  which  it  would  fail  to  work.  Yet 
with  all  this  tenacious,  world-conquering  strength, 
there  is,  drawn  from  the  divine  Source  of  this 
affection,  a  gentleness,  and  sympathy,  and  tender- 
ness and  humble  human  helpfulness  which  the 
Stoic  in  his  boastfulness  and  hardness  and  self- 
sufficiency  could  never  know. 

The  Christian  abhors  lying  and  stealing,  scold- 
ing and  slandering,  slavery  and  prostitution,  mean- 
ness and  murder,  not  less  but  far  more  than  the 
Stoic.  But  he  refrains  from  these  things,  not 
under  constraint  of  abstract  law,  but  because 
he  cares  so  deeply  and  sensitively  for  the  people 
whom  these  things  affect  that  he  cannot  endure 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  273 

the  thought  that  any  word  or  deed  of  his  should 
bring  them  pain  or  loss  or  shame  or  degradation. 
Thus  he  gets  the  Stoic  strength  without  its  hard- 
ness ;  the  Stoic  universality  without  its  barrenness ; 
the  Stoic  exaltation  without  its  pride ;  the  Stoic 
integrity  without  its  formalism ;  the  Stoic  calm 
without  its  impassiveness. 

Christianity  is  as  lofty  as  Platonism ;  but  it  gets 
its  elevation  by  a  different  process.  Instead  of 
rising  above  drudgery  and  details,  it  lifts  them 
up  into  a  clearer  atmosphere,  where  nothing  is 
servile  or  menial  which  can  glorify  God  or  serve 
a  fellow-man. 

The  great  truth  which  Plato  taught  was  the 
subordination  of  the  lower  elements  in  human 
nature  to  the  higher.  In  the  application  of  this 
truth,  as  we  saw,  Plato  went  far  astray.  His 
highest  was  not  attainable  by  every  man ;  and 
he  proposed  to  enforce  the  dictates  of  reason 
by  fraud  and  intimidation  on  those  incapable  of 
comprehending  their  reasonableness.  Thus  he 
was  led  into  that  fallacy  of  the  abstract  universal 
which  is  common  to  all  socialistic  schemes.  Chris- 
tianity takes  the  Platonic  principle  of  subordination 
of  lower  to  higher ;  but  it  adds  a  new  definition  to 
what  the  higher  or  rather  the  highest  is;  and  it 
introduces  a  new  appeal  for  the  lowliest  to  become 


2/4  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

willing  servants  and  friends  of  the  highest,  in- 
stead of  mere  constrained  serfs  and  slaves.  This 
highest  principle  is,  of  course,  the  love  of  the  God 
who  loves  all  His  human  children;  friendship  to 
the  Christ  who  is  the  friend  of  every  man.  Conse- 
quently there  are  no  humble  working-men  to  be 
coerced  and  no  unfortunate  women  to  be  mal- 
treated and  despised;  no  deformed  and  ill-begotten 
children  to  be  exposed  to  early  death,  as  in  Plato's 
exclusive  scheme.  To  the  Christian  every  child 
is  a  child  of  God,  every  woman  is  a  sister  of 
Christ,  every  man  is  a  son  of  the  Father;  and 
consequently  no  one  of  them  can  be  disregarded 
in  our  plans  of  fellowship  and  sympathy  and 
service ;  for  whoever  should  dare  to  leave  them 
out  of  his  own  sympathy  and  love  would  thereby 
exclude  himself  from  the  love  of  God,  likeness  to 
Christ,  and  participation  in  the  Christian  Spirit. 

Thus  Christianity  gives  us  all  that  was  wise 
and  just  in  the  Platonic  principle  of  the  subordi- 
nation of  the  lower  elements  in  our  nature  to  the 
higher ;  but  its  higher  is  so  much  above  the  highest 
dream  of  Plato  that  it  guards  certain  forms  of 
social  good  at  points  where,  even  in  Plato's  ideal 
Republic,  they  were  ruthlessly  betrayed. 

Christianity  finally  gathers  up  into  itself  what- 
ever is  good  in  the  principle  of  Aristotle.     The 


THE  CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT  OF   LOVE  2/5 

Aristotelian  principle  was  the  devotion  of  life  to 
a  worthy  end  and  the  selection  of  efficient  means 
for  its  accomplishment.  On  that  general  formula 
it  is  impossible  to  improve.  "To  this  end  have 
I  been  born,  and  to  this  end  am  I  come  into  the 
world,"  is  Jesus'  justification  of  his  mission,  when 
questioned  by  Pontius  Pilate.  "  One  thing  I  do, 
forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
stretching  forward  to  the  things  which  are  be- 
fore, I  press  on  toward  the  goal  unto  the  prize 
of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,"  is 
Paul's  magnificent  apology  for  his  way  of  life. 
The  concentration  of  one's  whole  energy  upon 
a  worthy  end,  and  the  willing  acceptance  of 
pains,  privations,  and  penalties  which  may  be 
incidental  to  the  effective  prosecution  of  that 
end,  is  the  comprehensive  formula  of  every  brave 
and  heroic  life ;  whether  it  be  the  life  of  Jew  or 
Gentile,  Greek  or  Christian.  It  is  not  because  it 
sets  forth  something  different  from  this  wise  and 
brave  prosecution  of  a  noble  end  that  Christianity 
is  an  improvement  on  the  teaching  of  Aristotle ; 
it  is  because  the  end  at  which  the  Christian  aims 
is  so  much  higher,  and  the  fortitude  demanded 
by  it  is  so  much  deeper,  that  Christianity  has 
superseded  and  deserves  to  supersede  the  noblest 
teaching  of  the  greatest  Greeks.     What  was  the 


2/6  FROM  EPICURUS  TO   CHRIST 

end  which  Aristotle  set  before  himself  and  his 
disciples  ?  Citizenship  in  a  city  state  half  free 
and  half  enslaved,  with  leisure  for  the  philosophic 
contemplation  of  the  learned  few,  bought  by  the 
constrained  toil  of  the  ignorant,  degraded  many; 
the  refined  companionship  of  choice  congenial 
spirits  for  which  it  was  expected  that  the  multi- 
tude would  be  forever  incapacitated  and  from 
which  they  would  be  forcibly  excluded.  Over 
against  this  aristocracy  of  birth,  opportunity, 
leisure,  training,  and  intelligence  Jesus  sets  the 
wide  democracy  of  virtue,  and  service,  and  love. 
Whoever  is  capable  of  doing  the  humblest  deed 
in  love  to  God  and  service  to  man  becomes  thereby 
a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  the  choicest  spirits  to 
be  found  in  earth  or  heaven ;  and  entitled  to  the 
same  courteous  and  delicate  consideration  which 
the  disciple  would  show  to  his  Master.  The  build- 
ing up  of  such  a  kingdom  and  the  extension  of  its 
membership  to  include  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
and  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  within  its 
happy  fellowship,  and  in  its  noble  service,  is  the 
great  end  which  Jesus  set  before  himself  and  which 
he  invites  each  disciple  to  share. 

Whatever  hardship  and  toil,  whatever  pain  and 
persecution,  whatever  reviling  and  contumely, 
whatever  privation  and  poverty  may  be  necessary 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  2/7 

to  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  end  the 
Master  himself  gladly  bore,  and  he  asks  his  fol- 
lowers to  do  the  same.  In  a  world  full  of 
hypocrisy  and  corruption,  pride  and  pretence, 
avarice  and  greed,  cruelty  and  lust,  malice  and 
hate,  selfishness  and  sin,  there  are  bound  to  be 
many  trials  to  be  borne,  much  hard  work  to  be  done, 
many  blows  to  be  borne,  much  suffering  to  be  en- 
dured. All  that  is  inevitable,  whatever  view  one 
takes  of  life.  Christ,  however,  shows  us  the  way 
to  do  and  bear  these  things  cheerfully  and  bravely 
as  part  of  his  great  work  of  redeeming  the  world 
from  the  bondage  and  misery  of  these  powers  of 
evil,  and  establishing  His  kingdom  of  gentleness, 
and  love,  and  peace,  and  kindness,  and  good-will. 
To  keep  the  clear  vision  of  that  great  end  before 
our  eyes,  to  keep  the  sense  of  His  companionship 
warm  and  glowing  within  our  hearts,  never  to  lose 
the  sense  of  the  great  liberation  and  blessing  this 
kingdom  will  bring  to  our  downtrodden,  mal- 
treated brothers  and  sisters  in  the  humbler  walks 
of  life,  Jesus  tells  us  is  the  secret  of  that  sanity 
and  sacrifice  which  is  able  to  make  the  yoke  of 
useful  toil  easy,  and  the  burden  of  social  service 
light ;  and  to  transform  the  cross  of  suffering  into 
a  crown  of  joy. 

Each  of  these  four  previous  principles  is  valu- 


27^  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

able  and  essential ;  and  the  fact  that  Christianity 
is  higher  than  them  all,  no  more  warrants  the 
Christian  in  dispensing  with  the  lower  elements, 
than  the  supremacy  of  the  roof  enables  it  to  dis- 
pense with  the  foundation  and  the  intervening 
stories.  Both  for  ourselves,  and  for  the  world  in 
which  we  Uve,  we  need  to  make  our  ideal  of  per- 
sonality broad  and  comprehensive.  We  need  to 
combine  in  harmonious  and  graceful  unity  the 
happy  Epicurean  disposition  to  take  fresh  from 
the  hand  of  nature  all  the  pleasures  she  innocently 
offers;  the  strong  Stoic  temper  that  takes  com- 
placently whatever  incidental  pains  and  ills  the 
path  of  duty  may  have  in  store  for  us ;  the  occa- 
sional Platonic  mood  which  from  time  to  time 
shall  lift  us  out  of  the  details  of  drudgery  when 
they  threaten  to  obscure  the  larger  outlook  of 
the  soul;  the  shrewd  AristoteUan  insight  which 
weighs  the  worth  of  transient  impulses  and  passing 
pleasures  in  the  impartial  scales  of  intellectual 
and  social  ends;  and  then,  not  as  a  thing  apart, 
but  rather  as  the  crown  and  consummation  of 
all  these  other  elements,  the  generous  Christian 
Spirit,  which  makes  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the 
aims  and  interests,  of  others  as  precious  as  one's 
own;  and  sets  the  Will  of  God  which  includes 
the   good   of    all    His    creatures    high    above   all 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   OF   LOVE  2/9 

lesser  aims,  as  the  bond  that  binds  them  all  to- 
gether in  the  unity  of  a  personal  life  which  is  in 
principle  perfect  with  some  faint  approximation 
to  the  divine  perfection. 

The  omission  of  any  truth  for  which  the  other 
ancient  systems  stood  mutilates  and  impoverishes 
the  Christian  view  of  life.  Ascetic  Puritanism, 
for  instance,  is  Christianity  minus  the  truth  taught 
by  Epicurus.  Sentimental  liberalism  is  Christian- 
ity without  the  Stoic  note.  Dogmatic  orthodoxy 
is  Christianity  sadly  in  need  of  Plato's  search-light 
of  sincerity.  Sacerdotal  ecclesiasticism  is  Chris- 
tianity that  has  lost  the  Aristotelian  disinterested- 
ness of  devotion  to  intellectual  and  social  ends 
higher  and  wider  than  its  own  institutional 
aggrandisement. 

The  time  is  ripe  for  a  Christianity  which  shall 
have  room  for  all  the  innocent  joys  of  sense  and 
flesh,  of  mind  and  heart,  which  Epicurus  taught  us 
to  prize  aright;  yet  shall  have  the  Stoic  strength 
to  make  whatever  sacrifice  of  them  the  universal 
good  requires;  which  shall  purge  the  heart  of 
pride  and  pretence  by  questionings  of  motive  as 
searching  as  those  of  Plato ;  and  at  the  same  time 
shall  hold  life  to  as  strict  accountability  for  prac- 
tical usefulness  and  social  progress  as  Aristotle's 
doctrines  of  the  end  and  the  mean  require.     It  is 


280  FROM   EPICURUS   TO   CHRIST 

by  some  such  world-wide,  historical  approach,  and 
the  inclusion  of  whatever  elements  of  truth  and 
worth  other  systems  have  separately  emphasised, 
that  we  shall  reach  a  Christianity  that  is  really 
catholic. 


INDEX 


Accident,  Stoic  explanation  of,  83- 

85- 

Adultery,  Christian  treatment  of, 
227-229. 

Adversity,  test  of  Christian  charac- 
ter, 250-251. 

Altruism,  excessive,  10-15. 

Ambition,  143-144,  182. 

Amputation  of  morbid  reflections, 

33- 
Apperception,  66-70. 
Aristotle,  completed  in  Christianity, 
274,  278,  279. 
Limitations  of,  212-213. 
Summary  of,  313-214. 
On  — 
Celibacy,  180-181. 
Chastity,  202-204. 
Courage,  204-206. 
The  end,  179-191. 
Friendship,  209-212. 
The  mean,  194-198. 
Need  of  instruments,  191-194. 
Pleasure,  169-175. 
Prudence,  200. 

Social  nature  of  man,  176-179. 
Temperance,  201. 
Test  of  character,  184. 
The  virtues,  199-208. 
Wealth,  192. 
Wisdom,  199. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  100,  107. 
Avarice,  146-147. 

Bacteria,  on  the  whole  beneficent, 

84-85. 
Boss,  political,  evolution  of,  150- 

151- 
Carlyle,  160-161,  190. 
Catholic  Christianity,  266-280. 


Celestial  Surgeon,  19, 

Celibacy,  180-181. 

Character,  test  of,  183-189,  231-232, 

Chastity,  202-204,  227-229,  239-241. 

Cheerfulness,  19. 

"  Christian  Science,"  66,  70,  26a- 

266. 
Christian  — 
Church  government,  244-245. 
Fidelity,  253-254. 
Fighting,  251-253. 
Forgiveness,  251-253. 
Joy,  249-251. 
Love,  247-248. 
Modesty,  248-249. 
Peace,  251-253. 
Sacrifice,  254-256. 
Transformation  of  character,  217. 
Use  and  misuse  of  creeds,  245- 

247. 
Way  of  salvation,  220,  232-233. 
Worship,  244-245. 
Interpretation  of — 
Art,  241-243. 
Business,  241-243. 
Chastity,  202-204, 227-229, 239- 

241. 
Covetousness,  230-231. 
Divorce,  237-239. 
False  witness,  229-230. 
Idolatry,  222,  231. 
Honouring  parents,  224-225. 
Licentiousness,   227-229,  239- 

241. 
Marriage,  236-239. 
Murder,  225-227. 
Pleasure,  234-235. 
Christian  — 

Interpretation  of — 
Politics,  241-243. 


281 


282 


INDEX 


Christian  [continued]  — 
Interpretation  of — 

Polytheism,  221-222. 

Profanity,  223. 

Sabbath,  223-224. 

Science,  241-243. 

Sin,  231. 

Stealing,  229. 

Vice,  231. 

Virtue,  231. 

Wealth,  221-222. 
Christianity  — 
The  completion  of — 

Aristotle,  274-277. 

Epicureanism,  267-269. 

Plato,  273-274. 

Stoicism,  269-273. 
Definition  of,  215-218. 
Fundamental  insight  of,  215. 
Misrepresentations  of,  218. 
Missionary    character    of,    243- 

244. 
In  need  of  intellectual  honesty, 

246-247. 
Not  doctrine,  but  life,  215. 
Personal  fruits  of,  247-256. 
Practical    appUcations    of,   234- 

247. 
Supremacy  of,  218,  233. 
Christmas    Sermon,    Stevenson's, 

19- 
Churchman,  Dr.  J.  W.,  266. 
Circumstances  alter  acts,  129. 
Cleanthes'  hymn,  97-99. 
Clubs,  women's,  188-189. 
Commandments,  Aristotelian,  213. 
Ten,  Christian  expansion  of,  218- 

233- 
Conceit,  249. 

Cosmopolitanism,  Stoic,  94-95. 
Courage,  204-206. 
Cowardice,  128, 
Creeds,  245-247. 
Cross,  symbol  of  Christianity,  255- 

256. 
A  crown  of  joy,  277. 
Cynicism,  82. 
Cynic's  prayer,  96-97. 


Death,  Christian  triumph  over,  271, 
272. 

Epicurean   disposition  of,  7,  8, 

45- 
Stoic  view  of,  73,  77. 
Whitman  on,  18. 
Degeneration,    Plato's    stages    of, 

143-153- 
Depression,  32-33,  249-250. 
Democracy,  ancient  and  modem, 
122. 
Christian,  276. 
Plato  on,  147-149. 
Diet,  5,  21-22,  124-126. 
Difficulty,    Stoic    attitude   toward, 

75-76. 
Divorce,  logical  outcome  of  Epicu- 
reanism, 44. 
Christian  attitude  toward,  237- 

239- 
Drudgery,  fidelity  in,  253. 

Education,  Plato's  scheme  of,  131- 

138. 
Egoism,  duty  of  adequate,  10-15. 
Electricity  beneficent,  84. 
Eliot,  George,  46-51. 
Emerson,  165-167. 
End,   not  justification   of  means, 

178-179. 
Epictetus,  71-77,  81,  84,  87,  88,  89, 

96.97- 
Epicurean  — 

Day,  34-35. 

Definition  of  personality,  37,  51. 

Gods,  9,  95. 

Heaven,  45. 

Man,  40-41. 

Woman,  42-44. 
Epicureanism,    defects    of,    36-45, 
no,  159,  169-172,  267-269. 

Merits  of,  23-25,  52-53,  278-279. 

Parasitic  character  of,  40,  44-45, 

52- 
Epicurus,  1-9. 
Equality,  Plato  on,  148. 
Evil,  Stoic  solution  of,  87-90. 
Eye  of  good  man  upon  us,  6. 


INDEX 


283 


Fidelity,  253-254. 

Fighting,  a  Christian   duty,   251- 

252. 
Fitzgerald,  15-16. 
Forgiveness,  79,  251. 
Fortitude,  126-129. 
Friendship,  6,  166-167,  209-212. 

Gentleness  before  all  morality,  19. 
Gilbert,  .W.  S.,  To  the  Terrestrial 

Globe,  108. 
Gluttony,  125. 

Good,  the,  according  to  Plato,  130, 
Goodness,    at    heart  of  universe, 

215-217. 
Gossip  and  scandal,  229-230. 
Gravitation,  beneficent,  83-84. 
Gyges"  ring,  115-116. 

Handles,  two  to  everything,  71. 
Harmony,  effect  of,  in  education, 

134- 
Health,  10-13,  69,  256-259. 
Henley,  To  R.  T.  H.  B.,  loo. 
Heretic,  definition  of,  53-54. 
Honesty,  intellectual,  246-247. 
Honouring  parents,  224-225. 
Horace,    Ode    on    Philosophy  of 

Life,  10. 
Humility,  248-249. 
Hurry,  29-30. 

Idolatry,  modem,  222. 
Imaginary  presence  of  good  man, 

6. 
Independence  of  outward  goods, 

4.  74- 
Indifference  of  external  things,  71, 

77-78,  81. 
Intellectual  honesty,  246-247. 

Jesus'  breadth  and  charity,  267. 
Joy,  249-251. 
Judas  meets  himself,  79. 
Judgment,   Epicurean,  Stoic,  Pla- 
tonic,    and     Aristotelian, 
183. 
Christian,  219-221,  231-233. 


Kant,  categorical  imperative,  86. 
Good-will  only  real  good,  85-86, 
Uncompromising  modem  Stoic, 

85. 
Kingdom  of  Christ,  277. 

Law,  Jewish,  transcended  by  Chris- 
tianity, 218,  233. 
Stoic  reverence  for,  82-86. 

Liberty,  excess  of,  leads  to  slavery, 
149. 

Lincoln's  letter  to  Greeley,  198. 

Literature  in  education,  132-135 

Love,  Christian,  247-248. 

Lucretius,  8-9. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  77, 96. 

Marriage,  236-239. 

Mean,  Aristotle's  doctrine  of  the, 

194-198. 
Melancholy,  33-34. 
Mental  healing,  30,  66, 70, 262-266. 
Mill,  Christian  elements  in  his  doc- 
trine, 63. 
Definition  of  happiness,  54. 
Distinction  in  quality  of  happi- 
ness, 55-57. 
Incompleteness  of  doctrine,  267- 

269. 
Inconsistency  of,  57-58,  63-65. 
On  social  nature  of  man,  60-62. 
Missionary  character  of  Christian- 
ity, 243-244. 
Modesty,  248-249. 
Morrow,  how    meet    most   pleas- 
antly, 7. 
Murder,   Christian    definition    of, 

225-227. 
Mysticism,  164. 

Natural  desires,  3. 
Neoplatonism,  162-164. 
"  New  Thought,"  162. 

Obligation  not  to  be  relaxed,  167- 
168. 

Office,  good  for  one,  bad  for  an- 
other, 186-187. 


284 


INDEX 


Omar  Khayyam,  15-17,  38. 
Opinion  in  our  power,  74-75,  87. 
Optimism,  superficiality  of  mod- 
em, 82. 
Otherworldliness,  36. 

Pain,  2,  4. 

Parasitic  character  of  Epicurean- 
ism, 40,  44-45. 
Patience,  128. 
Perfectionism,  92-93. 
Pessimism,  37-38. 
Philosophers  as  kings,  138. 
Plato,  completed    in  Christianity, 
273-274. 
Defects  of,  120-122, 162-168. 
Merits  of,  159-162,  278. 
On  — 
Athletics,  136. 
Cardinal  virtues,  123-131. 
Democracy,  147-149. 
Education,  131-138. 
The  good,  130, 137. 
Literature  in  education,  132- 

135. 
Philosophers  as  kings,  138. 
Riches  and  rich  men,  145-147. 
Righteousness,    113-123,   138- 

142,  153-159. 
Play,  26-28. 
Pleasure,  2-4,  20,  39,  50-65,   110- 

III,  169-175,  234-235. 
Politician,  117-119,  150-152. 
Polytheism,  modem  form  of,  222. 
Poverty,  4. 

Power,  things  in  our,  74. 
Present,  the  time  to  live,  6,  36. 
Procrastination,  6-7. 
Profanity,  Christian   definition  of, 

222-223. 
Prudence,  5-6,  20,  200. 
Puritanism,  279. 

Reading  Gaol,  227. 
Religion  of  Stoics,  95-100. 
Reverence,  215. 

Rewards  and  penalties  not  essen- 
tial to  virtue,  112-115. 


Riches,  4-5,  67-69,   89,    145-147, 

221-222,  235-236. 
Righteousness,    1 13-123,    138-142, 

153-159. 
Romola,  46-51. 

Sabbath,  Christian  keeping  of,  223- 

224. 
Sacerdotalism,  245,  279. 
Sacrifice,  254-256. 
Salvation,   Christian  way  of,  220, 

232-333- 
Self-regard  and  excessive  self-sac- 
rifice, 10-15. 
Self-righteousness,  217, 
Seneca's  pilot,  77. 
Sexual  morality,  202-204,  227-229, 

240-241. 
Sin,  93,  231. 
Sleep,  22, 
Social  nature  of  man,  60-62,  176- 

179. 
Socrates'  prayer,  159. 
Sorrow,  Stoic  attitude  toward,  76-77. 
Spencer,  10-15,  268-269. 
Spirit,  one  of  three  elements  in  our 

nature,  126-128. 
Stealing,  Christian  definition  of,  229. 
Stevenson,  18,  19,  201. 
Stoic  — 
Acceptance  of  criticism,  103. 
Attitude   toward  sorrow,  76-77, 

78,  80,  101-102. 
Cosmopolitanism,  94-95. 
Doctrine  of  no  degrees  in  vice, 

90-92. 
Equanimity,  103-105. 
Fortitude,  105-106. 
Indifference,  71-81. 
Paradoxes,  90-95. 
Perfection  of  the  sage,  92-93. 
Religion,  95-103. 
Resignation,  97,  104-105. 
Reverence  for  law,  82-86. 
Solution  of  problem  of  evil,  87-90. 
Stoicism,  coldness  of,  107-109. 
Completed  in  Christianity,  269- 
273- 


INDEX 


285 


Stoicism  [continued]  — 
Defects  of,  106-109,  IS9' 
Permanent  value  of,  101-106, 278- 

279. 
Two  principles  of,  loi. 

Temperance,  200-204. 

Theatre,  27. 

Therapeutics,  Christian,  256-266. 

Tito  Melema,  46-51. 

Tranquillity,  75. 

Travel,    foreign,    the    paradise  of 

Epicurean  women,  42. 
Trial,  Stoic  endurance  of,  75,  89-90. 
Tyranny,  Plato  on,  149-153. 
Tyrant,  most  miserable  of  men,  153. 


Unrighteousness  the  greatest  evil, 
140-141, 154-157- 

Vanity,  249. 

Vexation,  Stoic  formula  for,  78. 

Virtue,  87-88,  110-116,  199-208. 

Wealth,  4-5,  67-69,  145-148,  182, 

221-222,  235-236. 
Whitman,  Walt,  17,  18,  216. 
Wisdom,  129-131,  199. 
Work,  excessive,  10-15,  23-25. 
Christian  attitude  toward,  242- 

243- 
Worry,  folly  of,  24,  29-30,  33. 


PRACTICAL  IDEALISM. 

By  WM.   DeWITT  HYDE,  D.D., 

frexidtnt  of  Bowdoin  College,  and  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral  PhUosofhf, 

lamo.    Cloth.    $1.50.] 


THB  OUTLOOK :  "  A  book  of  singular  lucidity  and  of  ethical  vizor  and  practical 
philosophy,  utterly  free  from  theological  bias,  wide  in  the  outlook  of  keen  thought  and 
warm  feeling,  and  admirably  interpreting '  the  spiritual  significance  of  every -day  life.' " 

CHURCH  UNION:  "Full  of  much  that  is  intellectually  stimulating,  and  full 
too,  as  its  title  signifies  it  was  meant  to  be,  of  much  that  is  practically  helpful." 

THE  CONGREGATION ALIST:  "  Whoever  reads  this  volume  . .  .  will  concede 
readily  that  it  deserves  the  highest  commendation.  Certainly  we  recall  no  other 
treatise  upon  its  topic  which  we  consider  its  equal.  It  is  exceedingly  concise  and 
compact.  It  is  characteristically  candid  and  large-minded.  It  outlmes  its  subject 
with  proper  concentration  of  attention  upon  essential  points,  and  its  interest  increases 
to  the  clunaz.     Its  style  is  unusually  lucid  and  intelligible." 


OUTLINES  OF  SOCL\L  THEOLOGY. 

By  WM.  DeWITT  HYDE,  D.D., 

frttidtnt  of  Bowdoin  College,  and  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral  Phiiese^hy, 

lamo.    Cloth.    Price  $1.50. 

Part  I.  Theological;  n.  Anthropological;  m.  Sociological. 


"  It  contains  something  more  than  commonly  well  worth  reading.  The  keynot* 
of  the  volume,  as  we  read  it,  is  sounded  in  the  first  sentence  of  Chapter  IV. :  '  It 
is  impossible  to  separate  God  from  man  or  man  from  God.  They  are  correlative 
terms.'  The  author  plants  himself  firmly  on  this  social  conception  of  theology,  and 
holds  it.  The  book  is,  all  through,  very  much  out  of  the  ordinary  line.  It  does  not 
fly  in  the  face  of  settled  convictions,  nor  contradict  the  traditional  creeds.  The  sub- 
ject is  set  up  for  discussion  in  a  different  light  and  in  new  and  delightfully  suggestive 
•  relations."  —  The  Independent. 

"  A  most  welcome  book.  It  is  something  far  better  and  more  desirable  than  its 
title  would  indicate.  We  think  he  deserves  credit  for  something  more  thorough  and 
lasting  than  he  is  willing  to  claim.  At  any  rate,  he  traverses  from  end  to  end  the 
whole  region  of  religion,  on  the  side  both  of  theory  and  of  practice,  and  explores  it 
in  the  light  of  the  science  and  thinking  and  spirit  of  our  day.  The  author^s  gift 
of  telling  utterance,  his  fine  feeling,  and  lofty  purpose  seem  never  to  fail  him.  He 
shows  that  he  has  in  rare  degree  the  gifts  of  the  preacher,  and  that  these  chapters 
were  first  spoken  as  sermons.  They  lose  in  print  none  of  their  reality  and  practical 
efficiency.  It  is  a  good  omen  that  this  first  attempt  at  a  thorough  restatement  of 
Christian  doctrine  should  command  the  service  of  the  art  to  please  and  convince, 
and  partake  both  of  the  'grace  and  truth  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ.'" — Tkt 
Congrega  iio  nalist. 

"  The  dominating  idea  of  Dr.  Hyde's  book  is  indicated  by  its  title, '  Outlines  of 
Social  Theology.'  It  is  not  sociology  viewed  theistically :  it  is  theology  viewed 
socially.  It  does  not,  like  Kidd's  '  Social  Evolution '  or  Drummond's  '  Ascent  of 
Man,'  contribute  one  notably  new  and  crystallizing  thought  to  a  familiar  discussion. 
It  is  rather,  as  its  title  indicates,  an  '  outline.'  But  it  is  not  a  skeleton.  It  is  full 
of  life,  of  blood,  of  nerves.  In  it  the  author  reflects  in  fresh  and  vital  statements, 
the  latest,  and  what  the  Outlook  regards  as  the  best,  theological  thought  of  our 
time.  But  this  he  does  not  as  a  mere  reporter;  he  is  a  thinker  who  has  felt  the 
influence  of  the  Zeitgeist,  and  reproduces  in  remarkably  clear  statements  truths 
which  lie  in  modern  consciousness,  either  as  undefined  experiences  or  as  individual 
but  not  correlated  truths."  —  The  Outlook. 


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New  Testament   Handbooks 


EDITED  BY 

SHAILER  MATHEWS 

Professor  of  New  Testament  History  and  Interpretaiiom, 
University  of  Chicago 

Anangements  are  made  for  the  following  volumes,  and  the  publishers 
will,  on  request,  send  notice  of  the  issue  of  each  volume  as  it  appears  and 
each  descriptive  circular  sent  out  later;  such  requests  for  information 
should  state  whether  address  is  permanent  or  not :  — 

The  History  of  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the 

New  Testament 

Prof.  Marvin  R.  Vincent,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis, 
Union  Theological  Seminary.  \_Now  ready. 

Professor  Vincent's  contributions  to  the  study  of  the  New  Testament  rank  him 
among  the  first  American  exegetes.  His  most  recent  publication  is  "  A  Critical 
and  Exegetical  Commentary  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Philippians  and  to  Philemon  " 
{International  Critical  Cefnmentary) ,  which  was  preceded  by  a  "  Students' 
New  Testament  Handbook,"  "  Word  Studies  in  the  New  Testament,"  and 
others. 

The  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the 
New  Testament 

prof.  Henry  S.  Nash,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation, 
Cambridge  Divinity  School.  [Now  ready. 

Of  Professor  Nash's  "  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience,"  The  Outlook  said:  "  The 
results  of  Professor  Nash's  ripe  thought  are  presented  in  a  luminous,  compact, 
and  often  epigrammatic  style.  The  treatment  is  at  once  masterful  and  helpful, 
and  the  book  ought  to  be  a  quickening  influence  of  the  highest  kind ;  it  surely 
will  establish  the  fame  of  its  author  as  a  profound  thinker,  one  from  whom  we 
have  a  right  to  expect  future  inspiration  of  a  kindred  sort." 

Introduction  to  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament 

Prof.  B.  WisNER  Bacon,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation, 
Yale  University.  [Now  ready. 

Professor  Bacon's  works  in  the  field  of  Old  Testament  criticism  include  "  The 
Triple  Tradition  of  Elxodus,"  and  "  The  Genesis  of  Genesis,"  a  study  of  the 
documentary  sources  of  the  books  of  Moses.  In  the  field  of  New  Testament 
study  he  has  published  a  number  of  brilliant  papers,  the  most  recent  of  which  is 
"The  Autobiography  of  Jesus,"  in  the  American  y our  nal  of  Theology. 

The  History  of  New  Testament  Times  in  Palestine 

Prof.  Shailer  Mathews,  Professor  of  New  Testament  History  and 
Interpretation,  The  University  of  Chicago.  [Now  ready. 

The  Coneregationalist  says  of  Prof.  Shailer  Mathews's  recent  work,  "  The  Social 
Teaching  of  Jesus":  "Re-reading  deepens  the  impression  that  the  author  is 
scholarlv,  devout,  awake  to  all  modem  thought,  and  yet  conservative  and  pre- 
eminently tane.  If,  after  reading  the  chapters  dealing  with  Jesus'  attitude 
toward  man,  society,  the  family,  the  state,  and  wealth,  the  reader  will  not  aj^ee 
with  us  in  this  opinion,  we  greatly  err  as  prophets." 


The  Life  of  Paul 

Prof.  Rush  Rhees,  President  of  the  University  of  Rochester. 

Professor  Rhees  is  well  known  from  his  series  of  "  Inductive  Lessons  "  contributed 
to  the  Sunday  School  Times.  His  "  Outline  of  the  Life  of  Paul,"  prirately 
printed,  has  had  a  flattering  reception  from  New  Testament  scholars. 

The  History  of  the  Apostolic  Age 

Dr.  C.  W.  VoTAW,  Instructor   in    New  Testament    Literature,  The 
University  of  Chicago. 

Of  Dr.  Votaw's  "  Inductive  Study  of  the  Founding  of  the  Christian  Church,"  Modern 
Church,  Edinburgh,  says:  "No  fuller  analysis  of  the  later  books  of  the  New 
Testament  could  be  desired,  and  no  better  programme  could  be  offered  for  their 
study,  than  that  afforded  in  the  scheme  of  fifty  lessons  on  the  Founding  of  thi 
Christian  Church,  by  Clyde  W.  Votaw.  It  is  well  adapted  alike  for  practical 
and  more  scholarly  students  of  the  Bible." 

The  Teaching  of  Jesus 

Prof.  George   B.  Stevens,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  Yale 
University.  \_Now  ready. 

Professor  Stevens's  volumes  upon  "  The  Johannine  Theology,"  "  The  Pauline  The- 
ology," as  well  as  his  recent  volume  on  "  The  Theology  of  the  New  Testament^" 
have  made  him  probably  the  most  prominent  writer  on  biblical  theology  id 
America.    His  new  volume  will  be  among  the  most  important  of  his  works. 

The  Biblical  Theology  of  the  New  Testament 

Prof.  E.  P.  Gould,  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation.  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia.    {Now  ready. 

Professor  Gould's  Commentaries  on  the  Gospel  of  Mark  (in  the  International  Criti' 
cal  Commentary)  and  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  (in  the  American  Com- 
mentary') are  critical  and  exegetical  attempts  to  supply  those  elements  which 
arc  lacking  in  existing  works  of  the  same  general  aim  and  scope. 

The  History  of  Christian  Literature  until  Eusebius 

Prof.  J.  W.  Plainer,  Professor  of  Early  Church  History,  Harvard 

University. 
Professor  Platner's  work  will  not  only  treat  the  writings  of  the  early  Christian 
writers,  but  will  also  treat  of  the  history  of  the  New  Testament  Canon. 

OTHERS  TO   FOLLOW 

*•  An  excellent  series  of  scholarly,  yet  concise  and  inexpensive  New  Testament  hand- 
books." —  Christian  Advocate,  New  York. 
*  These  books  are   remarkably  well  suited  in  language,  style,  and  price,  to  al 
students  of  the  New  Testament."  —  The  Congregationalist,  Boston. 


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